RP2 Series Ep 1: New Friends & Old Enemies Pt 1
by Lady Starscream
Summary: Part 1: Just the Beginning. The Decepticon gestalt group called the Rangers enter the spotlight, as well as new Autobots. But the two groups are linked by a sinister past. partially OC-centric, based on an RPG at the livejournal RP community kintari jade
1. Chapter 1

Beeep, beep, beeep..."

The human rolled over and smacked the alarm button, looking blearily throught the foggy contacts lenses at the time. "Ugh. six a.m." she rolled of the couck and stumbled down the balcony steps, trying to gain enough energy to transform.

The human finally got her coffee and breakfast, and wandered into the living room. "Almost seven." she noted, heading for the door, transforming from human to a tall, muave and blue seekerjet in a blue flash. She headed for the meeting room.

Jade slid into her seat, glancing ast the clock. Well, at least she was on time. She smirked at Prowl. He'd been bugging her about her tardiness. Among the others in the room were Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Ironhid. Prowl was to Prime's left, at the opposite end of the table. Prime nodded to everyone, then begain speaking...

"Yesterday, we recieved a message from one of the groups on Cybertron..." a few suprised glaces crossed the room

"We fear the Decepticons may be getting closer to one of our outposts near the southern side of Iacon. We haven't recieved any communications since then, so either they've gone into radio silence, or the decepticons are closer than we anticipated. We need to prepared to go rescue our allies there, if nessesary." he stated.

"We also recieved word the Decepticons are also researching a new type of weapon," the viewscreen clicked on, to display a sort of cannonn-looking thing.

"These photos were taken by aerial reconnisance. Just before one of the power generators in another sector was attacked. The Decepticons reportedly took some of the components."

Prime turned to Prowl, who was looking over a datapad. "I'll try to send a message to them as soon as a suitable window in the static field opens." Prime nodded. Ironhide spoke. "And what if somethin' did happen?"

"Then we shall send a team to investigate, and possibly return with any survivors." Prowl looked over his datapad. "We'll most likely be sending Skyfire, with Myself, Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, And Jade." Jade looked suprised. "Really?" she glanced at Prime. "You're sure I won't mess up or anything?" Prowl gave her a sour look like "Do you allways have to be such a drama-queen" Jade glanced at the tabletop, sorry she had asked.

On another world Shadow, a red-on-black femme with a dragon alt. mode, was exhausted; she was well aware of the Decepticon attack. After all she'd just managed to get into the autobot base and alert them to it before the Decepticons had arrived. Shadow had though suffered a mortifing shot to the wing something that made her a very angry dragon still. She flicked her tail slightly in irritation.

She was sitting bored out of her wits in the medbay with her brother going over blueprints while chattering incessently. Her brother, Bluestatic, was jabbering on as usual in a language she didn't understand and to be truthful she really couldn't care less; the dragon transformer really did regret coming to cybertron now. It had only meant to be a simple mission to fix a generator but no they had to get ambushed. "Well at least the other guys turned out worse." she thought a little smugly.

Shadow finally manage to her wing fixed flexing it she twisted to look at her brother.  
"How's it going 'Static"

"Meh could be better sis; this things burnt out really bad" he replied looking over it in detail. "I don't think I have the parts to do much more than make a temp repair" he sighed "It's at times like these I wish I had your occupation" Bluestatic looked a little forlorn.

"If you had it 'Static you wouldn't want it" Shadow replied in a knowing tone of voice.

--------------

Prowl typed in the message, and sent it, hoping it would reach their Cybertronian allies. "exlplain situation, do you require assistance?" he encoded it, and hit the send button.

-----------

At Shockwave's tower, the console beeped, and the purple gun walked over. He read it, then pressed another button. a trio of jets appeared. One yellow, one blue, and one green. "Attention. Autobot message intercepted, transmitting approximate location of recipient now. Find the Autobots, and destroy them." he commanded. A couple symbols flashed across the monitor, and the trio saluted, the screen went black.

Nearby the jet trio a pheonix perched watching carefully "Shadow" he murmered and took off trying to find the others; today Pathfinder would be complete once more, he knew it.

----------------------

The Autobot commander of the underground base growled in irritation as the message appeared on his screen; he couldn't reply without giving away the outpost's position. He just hoped the young engineer in the medbay could fix their generator before it was too late.

Prowl paced back and forth in front of teletraan when Prime walked up. "Any word yet?" the leader asked. "Negative." Prowl replied, glancing at the still-blank monitor. Prime thought for a secdond. "Notify me when you get any word on the situation"  
Prowl nodded.

There wasn't very much they could do; Bluestatic hoped his amateur repairs could hold out long enough he'd since managed to fix the basic concepts as soon as the message was sent he would have to try to fix it propperly. He incerted the repaired component and sent a message to the commander telling him it was "Now or never sir"

With the generator running the Autobot commander sent a quick brief message through...

"Decepticons...attacking...assistance...required...damage... extensive" which on the recieving end would be cut off abruptly due to the generator failing and the need for secrecy enveloped them once more.

Teletraan beeped, and Prowl quickly typed in the decoder. "Decpeticons...attacking... assistance requ... the rest of the message ended in static.

"Sir, we got a messge." he said. Prime nodded and clicked on his comm. "Prowl, Jade, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, report to the control room. " he clicked his comm off. "I'll call in Jazz from patrol, and contact Skyfire.

The trio of triangular seekers circled lazily, scanning the area of rubble and half incinerated buildings, scanning for energy signals. They swept lower.

"Hey, I have an idea." the green one, Spire, said."

"Oh, what's that?" the blue one radioed back.

"This." the green one dropped a cluster bomb on the allready-scrapped rubble.

"If we can't find them with sensors, we'll just have to flush them out." he smirked inwardly.

Meanwhile, below ground, the commander leaned back in his seat at the console.

"Sir do you think it got through?" one of the younger Autobots asked in a shaky tone.

"Lets hope so firestrike; lets hope so" the commander replied.

It was just at this moment that a cluster bomb landed near by them; the whole base shook causing people to fall ove everyone else. Thankfully the base was stronger than the pile of rubble that it looked like.

"Do they know where we are?" someone asked.

"I don't think so, they seem to be blitzing the area" he paused "They're trying to flush us out" he growled.

Meanwhile a pheonix, a griffon and a bee were flying fast towards where the jets had headed off to; they knew they had to be careful but the thrill of getting back what they deemed theirs was worth the risk. On the ground an invisible tigeress ran as fast as she could to keep up, while a wolf picked its way after her.

The group met outside the Ark, where Skyfire had landed, and had his boarding ramp down. Jazz pulled up and transformed.

Sunstreaker wasn't too happy about being sent on a mission to the backwater places of Cybertron... he grumbled but complied nevertheless. after all he could always take out his fustrations on the Decepticons. The yellow lamborgini pulled up next to Skyfire and transformed scowling all the while he climbed up the ramp and waited for his obnoxious twin to catch up. Jade glanced around at the others as they boarded. She had never been to another planet before.

The trio circled a second time. "See anything?" the orange seeker radioed to the Decepticons on the ground.

Saber, the tiger, looked up to the jets and replyed frankly "No" she didn't need to embellish anything and she didn't appreciate seekers being a general pain.

Windwhisper, the wolf, however, was a bit more charitable "I think it's around here I can smell them; but the scent in blurred a bit almost as if it was deep underground".

Sunstreaker got off Jetfire in his usual manner one that involved looking unhappy and verbally threatening anyone who got in the way or irritated him. Sideswipe on the other hand couldn't be happier "Better watch it Jade, Cybertron's not exactly a safe place" he told her purposefully trying to creep the human turned Transformer out. But was stopped by a smack from Sunstreaker

"Shut-up; dimwit" he scowled.

Jade glanced around taking in the shadows nervously. Jazz came over and slapped a hand on the jet's shoulderplate, startling her. "Don't worry 'hon, you'll be fine. Aint no one around to hurt us." he gave her a reasurring smile, and she gave a weak smile in return.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe simply settled into their irritate one another rountine not really paying that much attention to anyone else. "Aww sunny's worried about his finish. Don't worry Sunshine, when we get back to can lock yourself away and wax out all those dents." the red Lamborgini sniped. To which Sunstreaker replied to by thwapping him upside the head; "At least I look good" he snarled.

Meanwhile Shadow was by no means a happy dragon. She knew that they were there, and she didn't like it.

"Lets hope backup comes soon" she murmured keeping her balance by the aid of her wings and tail. She grabbed hold of one of the younger autobots as she threatened to knock her over "Watch it kid; you need to be careful falling over won't help us now"

Meanwhile Windwhisper (the grey-colored wolf) was sniffing about the rubble, and Saber, the tigress, was scounting out every nook and cranny she could find. Beedrill on the other hand was doing what every self respecting insecticon did...eat.

Little did anyone know that it was only a matter of time before the base would be discovered.

"I'll be back in about eight orn." Skyfire said. "If you get into trouble before then, just signal me. I'll be out in the barren lands." he added before taking off. Prowl hoped nobody noticed the stark white jet taking off over the dull grey landscape. "Let's go." he retrieved his gun from subspace, and Jazz took the lead, knowing the terrain better than the rest of the bots. The two black and whites took the lead, and the group ducked into a shadowy area between two gutted buildings.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stayed true to their training moving as steathily as they could (even though one of them was bright yellow and the other bright red) they were very good at what they did...even if they did prefer to face an enemy head on. The followed as the rear guard keeping track on everything that happened both behind them and in front of them.

As for Shadow, she knew they were getting closer. Fearing for her brothers safety she stealthily crept down towards the generator room. They had tried to hurt him once; perhaps they would try to do so again. As she neared the generator Shadow noticed the dull quietness about the place almost as if the seekers had given up bombing for the time being. Fearing the worst, Shadow hurried on unseen by all.

As for topside Saber and Windwhisper were getting very close to the entrance to the outpost's underground bunker. The griffon/temporary leader stood a little way away from the searchers supervising carefully everything that was going on.

The trio of seekers swung down, letting off another barrage of cluster bomb. Prowl's group paused when they heard the dull 'boom' of the bomb. Jade started forward a little, and they crept to the edge of the crumbling wall. "Drat." Jazz hissed. Jade looked at him funny. "What, no smart aleck comments, like noisy neighbors, or something?" she said.

But the usually chipper Porsche was nothing but serious. "we're here to help our allies, not alert the entire Decepticon force on the planet we're here." Prowl whispered back, barely audible. "You forget, they control this planet." he added. "So, what now?" Jazz asked.

Jade glanced at the group. A bunch of animals, and an insecticon, and three triangular seekers.

"So it's true." the jet thought, almost jealously. "They do allways travel in trios." She wished she could be part of a trio, but knew she'd never have that. She'd heard about why the seekers travel in trios, and the connection, even bond, between them

Prowl hesitated looking at the scene in front of him trying to tacitally analyise what was going on. "Perhaps a diversion could be used to draw them off then we could assist those inside the base and organise a more defensive position" he suggested hopeing that it would work.

The next cluster bomb fell while Bluestatic was still trying to fix the generator "common just a little bit more" he muttered. He was aware of his sister entering the room he looked up and at her then seeing the look in her optics he was immediately slightly fearful "They're back aren't they" it wasn't a question. To which Shadow did not need to reply, however she did nod briefly. "In that case be'd better hope help gets here before we're done for" he added again fiddiling with the generator component hoping to primus that he could get this thing back online and then use the base's self-defense weaponry to drive away the intruders.

Topside, Sky hovered nearby his team-mates "Yes finally" he muttered quietly looking down below his attention was so focused that he was hardly aware of anything other than the 'excavation' that was going on at the moment.

Jazz nodded. "I think I can take on those fliers." Jade eyed the trio circling above. "Maybe we should call Skyfire. Those fliers have been flyin' their entire lives, no offense, Jade." Jazz replied.  
"Don't worry. I won't let 'em catch me. I can lose them by transforming and duck into the ruins before they can slam on their airbrakes." she added with a smirk. Jazz nodded. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe crept forward slightly. "How about those ground-based goons?"

Jazz watched the animals (and insecticon) sniff (and munch) their way practically to the base's front door.

Prowl took note of the way the ground based decepticons were searching about "Perhaps a different method would be suitable for them" he spoke quietly "but first we need to get rid of those fliers".

Shadow coiled up close to her brother; yet she did it in a way so that she was not in his way. She was very careful about that she wanted to protect him but yet sometimes there were things that she knew she couldn't do or more likely shouldn't. The dragoness transformer kept close as the seekers barrage carried on. With a low growl she decided that as soon as she got out she would deal with them harshly.

All 5 of the team were a little to wrapped up in their search for their 6th member that they still hadn't noticed the Autobots approaching; Even though with Windwhispers sense of smell and the phoenix, Sky's keen sight they should have been able to see them ages ago. It showed that without Shadow they really weren't anything special; but they were driven on by the need to compleate the geasult and this made them quite dangerous.

The jet watched the trio, then ran back around to the other side of the building. "I'll be fine." she radioed. "But wait..."Prowl tried to protest as jade flew off The jet took off, heading straight for the group of 'formers. The jets were too far away to notice, but Jade knew they would circle back around. "Scuse me, I'm kinda lost, anyone know the way to the SCRAP PILE!?" the jet punctuated her last two words with a kload of clustre bombs, then wheeled midair, taking of right for where the trio of seekers were. Jazz shook his head. "She's gonna get herself scrapped doin' that."

"indeed" Prowl replied. With a shake of his head, he indicated that they should move close to give the jet the assistance that she might require.

Windwhisper's and Saber's fast reflexes were the only things that kept them from being blown apart, unfortuantly though; Beedrill wasn't so lucky. She wasn't destroyed but damaged, badly; the bee transformer was quickly picked up by DarkClaw, the griffen leader of their group, who prevented her destruction by taking her out of range. With a fierce shriek, Sky launched himself towards Jade, intent on tearing her apart for the damage that had been done to his team.

Sadly those inside had no idea what was going on outside otherwise the would have assisted (especially Shadow) however at the moment they all waited hoping and praying that their back up would arrive.

Jade did a barrel roll and veered to one side, putting the ruins of an old repairshop between herself and the land-based Decepticons. Before she could react, Spire, Sunstorm, and Cloudburst came out of nowhere, grazing her left wing with a weaponblast. The seeker cursed and sped up, making a wide arc. "It's now or never!" she radioed.

Suddenly, a feathered blur came out of nowhere, colliding with the jet's nosecone, sending her into an uncontrollable spin. The jet screeched as two more energy bolts hit their mark, leaviong scorch marks on her fuselage and underside. The trio of seekers snickered, moving in closer.

Shadow was seriously not liking this; the whole base was silent for fear of being discovered but other wise she was just mift. Bluestatic however was just busy fixing the generator.

Prowl, seeing Jade start to fall, motioned to the others to provide the Jet with back up and both he and Sunstreaker opened fire on the jets aiming to get them away from Jade.

As for the ground based rangers; they started to close in on the position of the outpost's entrance soon enough they might just break through.

"Gaah get off me!" Jade tried to transform around the screeching red phoenix, and saw everything whiz past as the ground came up to meet them.

Shadow was finnaly fed up "Sir I'm going to check up on whats going on outside" she radioed over on the secure channel.

"Very well but report back" was the reply.

"See ya sis and good luck" Bluestatic called out giving her the thumbs up.

Shadow stealthily climbed out of the outpost's underground bunker in time to see an unknown seeker try to fight off a red form she knew all to well. With a feral rage Shadow transformed in to her dragon mode took off clashing into Sky. Then folding her wings she dove after Jade.

Well, if Sky was attacking this strange seeker then there had to be a pretty good reason for it. Jade felt a pair of claws grab her and glanced up.

Opening her wings she caught Jade just before she would have crashed to the ground, gliding a little distance she landed putting her gently on the ground and turning to meet her opponents.

Prowl had been about to shoot the strange lizard like creature until he had noticed the Autobot emblem on it's wings when it had caught Jade instead he concentrated fire on the two ground decepticons that were closing in on the strange pair.

Sky was furious the seeker had escaped just as he was about to set it on fire a very well known red on black form had collided into him. His spark cried out to the dragon wanting their gesult bond to be reaffirmed and re-made.

As for Saber and Windwhisper they felt this too as they tried to corner the dragon that was now on the ground. Prowl's fire causing them to keep a certain distance for fear of getting hit. DarkClaw decided that he would try to take out those who were shooting at his team mates trusting the seekers would find the bunker or lend assistance as required.

Prowl aimed for what seemed to be the leader, the griffon of the group. Sideswipe and sunstreaker came bursting out from cover, and Jazz stayed behind, ducking from one bit of rubble-cover to another as he fired at random people.

Shadow roared a burst of fire erupted from her maw as she aimed at those who came close.

the dragon was not happy.

Jade glanced at the Aztec dragon, who reminded her of her leader, Syus, but he was green. This dragon was red on black, and had feathered wings instead of the usual scaled ones..

She glanced at the attackers. A griffen, a phoenix... (she gawked at the phoenix, but came back to reality quickly as another weaponburst whizzed past)

Sky dodged the weapon blast and came closer only to get hit by Sunstreaker's timely shot he didn't get damaged to badly though, and continued to fly squaking madly. DarkClaw however did get hit by Shadow's blast causing him to fall to the ground; seeing the imminent danger Windwhisper rushed to his aid the medic transformed pulling the much larger griffon out of harms way.

Saber lunged for Jade aiming to take out the seeker who harmed one of their number.

Prowl was trying his best to calculate all of these factors and one thing did spring to mind this lizard like transformer must have come from the Autobot outpost. Radioing them over a secure channel "This is Autobot Prowl here we are engaged in battle above the outpost could you please send us some assistance"

The Autobot commander had been waiting for Shadow's report for quite some time and was surprised to have the one an only Prowl report in her stead requesting assistance.  
"Copy that Prowl assistance is being sent" he replied on the same frequency.

Sunstreaker headed for the tiger, and Sideswipe went for one of the others.  
The trio of seekers turned around, and headed straight for them, firing all the way. Jade eeped when Saber lunged at her.

Shadow growled when Saber lunged for Jade but found she didn't need to do anything as Sunstreaker got there first. Instead she roared blasting her fire breath at the seekers hoping to drive them away in making them think it wasn't worth the troubble.

Prowl was grateful to get the reply "Very well; thank you" he sent back and contined to blast away this time at the seekers who were closing in the Autobot tactican calcualated one shot just right causing two of the seekers to hit each other.

Soon enough the outpost's occupents had somehow managed to get out of their bunker with out being seen and came to the rescue blazing weaponfire started to drive the enemy away.

Jade blinked, then tried to take off after the other seeker. She realized there was a hole in her wing about the time she crashed. Sideswipe had allready taken off using his rocket pack, landing on spire.

"What the..." the Green jet did a barrel roll a, building coming right at him. he was unable to pull up because of the lamorgini's added weight, and cringed as he slammed into the upper edge of the wall, knocking a good portion of it off as he hit, then skidded across more rubble as he crashed.

Shadow grined down to the strange seeker "Wanna lift" she asked in a mild tone as it seemed most of the situation was under control she thought she might as well get the injured one out of the way not being able to fly was not something most seekers liked and although Shadow didn't know that Jade was human she knew there was something different about her.

Saber growled and slashed out at the yellow form that had pracically tackled her relying on her instincts she bit down on Sunstreaker's shoulder causing him to cry out in surprise more than pain.

The bite to the shoulder just caused the yellow lamborgini to become even more angry as he punched the tigeress straight in the head; causing her to whimper in pain.

Sunstreaker was no lightweight and his punch and Saber's whimper did enough to cause Sky to dive in on him trying to protect his team mate.

Jade glanced at Prowl, who almost inperceptibly nodded. "Sure." She grabbed the proffered hand and hauled herself up, debating on whether the Dragon would carry her, or let her ride on it's back.

Sideswipe jumped off the jet, ducking into a roll as he crashed. He ran back to the others, and continued firing at the griffen.

"Let's go!" Sunstorm, the yellow jet, snarled, taking off.

Behind him, Stormwing and Spire limped into the air to follow.

Shadow assisted the seeker on to her back an launched herself into the air "here we go hold on tight" she called out as she pounded her feathered wings. Shadow did so love to fly soon enough she was high enough in the air to do what she enjoyed...hunting. The dragon dived (not too steeply mind you as she was still aware of the seeker on her back) and roared using her flame breath on the enemy oh yes she was having fun.

Seeing as the seekers had left, DarkClaw also called the retreat; having been repaired to acceptible efficency by Windwhisper, managed to fly back unaided carrying the still unconsious Beedrill.

Sky had bought Saber enough time to roll free. spitting furiously the tigeress ran after her leader casting a mournful glance towards the flying dragon as she did so.

Seeing as how they were out numbered, both Windwhisper and Sky left maintaining the rear guard and making sure no one else would get hurt if they could avoid it. 


	2. Chapter 2

Prowl watched the team leave, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker walked up. Jazz snuck out from cover and walked up. They looked at Shadow's teammates, and Prowl introduced his team, waiting for Shadow's to do the same.

Shadow backwinged to land allowing Jade to get off. She then transformed in to robot mode; the dragon head snapped back to become her helmet he arms changed to become more robot looking and her legs straightened.

It was at this time her brother tackle hugged her nearly knocking her over.

"Hey sis, glad your okay!" he told her while hugging her,

The Autobot commander briefly introduced the outposts troops and thanked the Autobots for their assistance.

Jade looked at shadow, and suddenly grinned. "Hey, I know you." her grin widened. "you're that 'bot on Cybertron that's been visiting my livejournal on the internet." she said.

Prowl gave Jade a look. "You've been posting information about the Autobots' activities on the internet?" he demanded, although his voice was still calm.

"Uh..."Jade glanced at him nervously. "Maybe?... But it wasn't anything about the location or movements of the forces or plans or anything, just non-essential information." she added quickly.

Sideswipe facepalmed, and Sunstreaker glared.

Jazz shook his head. "Babe, there's one thing ya don't do, it's put stuff on da web that can getchya in trouble." he noted.

Prowl looked at the jet. "I'm going to have a full review of your internet journal when we get home, Jade. And don't try to delete anything. I can find out if you did or not."

Jade gulped. "Yessir." she said.

Aw F! she thought. He didn't know she'd been talking to certain Cons. But it really was non-essential information, anyway, that she was posting.

And if anything, it would get Sideswipe and Sunstreaker into trouble with her, too. (late night street races with Drag Strip and Wildrider)

"Oh so that was you" Shadow grinned then she pointed at her brother "This is Bluestatic; my lil bro" she introduced him "You know the engineer who likes putting us in the medbay" she grinned a bit.

"Hey, Sir, really she hasn't been putting any important info on it; I'm sure that if anyone else was to read it they'd be bored out of their wits" Shadow tried to stand up for Jade even though she knew Kickback had been going on her journal. "Besides I even have a livejournal, and so far no one's complained about it Sir"

Shadow's tail flicked cauing a little bit of the dirt in her tail tip fur to hit Sunstreaker. Shadow didn't like the fact that he was glaring and she knew all to well why. However, with the way that she had done it there was no way of knowing where it had come from.

Bluestatic just grinned "Hi" he spoke to Jade in a cheerful tone ignoring the others "Hey, I don't do it that often" he complained.

Hearing the talk about the livejournal Bluestatic wisely said nothing.

"Hi." Jade grinned.

"In any event," Prowl almost-shrugged, walking forward and looking around, "We need to find a new location to move your troups to. If not take them back to Earth with us. That," he looked to the team commander. "Is up to you."

The autobot commander nodded "hmm this base has been compromised if we cannot find a new location soon then we may have to relocate to earth first we'd best destroy what is here though" he turned to Bluestatic "I want this place rigged to blow in 100 astro seconds. Everyone else, get your belongings out; what you can't carry, leave!"

With that Bluestatic nodded "Yes sir" and left to rig up the explosions next to the main generator where it should annailate everything.

"I'll get our stuff" Shadow called out to her brother before running after him but taking a different route. After a while Shadow was back the few items she had picked up as important and/or unreplacable were safely in subspace.

Prowl nodded. "Let's go." Her signaled Skyfire to land about half a megamile outside the city. He just hoped they wouldn't run into a patrol on the way. They headed for the alleys, ducking in and out of buildings, trying to hide.

The outpost bots followed the ark bots with a stealth pracited over many vorns. Soon enough Bluestatic joined them the base was rigged and they had just enough time to get out before it blew up.

The trio of seekers circled Shockwave's control center and landed. They and the others walked in. The gun-mech looked up. "report." he ordered.

"We found the location of their base, but a bunch of their friends showed up." Spire growled. "Yeah, the ones from earth." the blue seeker next to him said.

Shockwave looked suprised, as much as a faceless mech with a light bulb for an eye could.

"Elaborate."

The rangers walked passed carrying their damaged to the medbay. they could report later if needed to; right now they were angry at being denied what they believed was theirs.

Shockwave pressed the general comm switch. "Attention all troups, Autobots detected in the vicinity of sector 113-21-30. Find the invaders and destroy them." He nodded.

"go get yourselves repaired, my army will do the rest."

Skyfire circled and landed, opening his door.

Shadow had seen enough strange things in her life not to gawk at the size of Skyfire...unlike several other bots... Shadow though glancing amusedly at her brother who was doing just that. Following the main crowd Shadow walked up the gangplank into Skyfire her wings twitching slightly; she wasn't claustroboic she just didn't like flying when it wasn't under her own power...well, that and she had a fear of heights.

"All aboard." the white jet chuckled. They piled aboard, and Skyfire closed the door.

"Hang on!" the jet jerked, running down the clear area as his afterburners warmed up for takeoff.

Bluestatic snuggled close to his sister as they sat down on the flooring. If anyone saw them they might have called it cute...

Shortly afterwards Shadow would probably gut them; but still Shadow put her arm around her brother and held him close.

The rest of the garrison were either sitting or standing about talking idly with each other seemingly not to bothered about having to move base.

Shadow wasn't too sure about what was going on but she did notice that they had been chased though thankfully it seemed the big transport or whatever his name was had managed to out run them. She smiled down at her brother and gave him the thumbs up.

"There he is!" two trios of jets swooped down, firing at the jet. Skyfire shuddered, then took to the air, hoping to loose them. He sped up, leaving them behind.

"Whew, that was close." he broke atmosphere, and headed to Earth.

In the meantime, Shockwave was watching. "Shockwave to Megatron..."

Meanwhile the Rangers were not happy. Saber had sneaked into the command centre, and the tigress knew Shadow had escaped. Her invisibility device was activated so she could not be seen she turned tail and left to report to her fellows; perhaps they could try a different approach this time...

"Megatron here."

Shockwave saluted quickly. "Sir, the Autobots have found and rescued a group of autobots hiding out here on Cybertron, and are heading back to Earth. we tried to stop them, but there were too many.."

He steeled himself for Megatron's insults. But they never came. Instead, Megatron only said in a tight voice. "Very well, we'll be waiting for them."

Saber had reported what was going on to the others. DarkClaw growled angrilly and Beedrill just let out a slightly discordant buzz. Both of which were cut short by Windwhispers annoyed growl. They would get their 6th back eventually they all mutually agreed; the problem was, how?

Megatron waited, hovering over the console of the Nemesis's sensor readout boards.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were working on buffing out some scratches, and Jazz had turned his radio on. Prowl was silent, and Jade looked bored as could be.

Shadow looked over to Jade "hey you okay??" she asked pulling away slightly from her brother; though the blue bot just held on all the tighter. Shadow allowed her brother to hold on to her and she manuvered herself so he was more comfortable; and so she was as well.

Jade shrugged, resting her chin on one hand. "just bored."

after a minute, she started to think about what it would be like when the humans met Shadow. She imagined the looks on Spike and Sparkplugs faces. She grinned at the dragon.

"Just don't go yelling around Spike and Sparkplug, out human friends, it'll freak them out." she grinned. "You know... dragon... eheh... never mind." she blushed and let it drop.

Skyfire would take four hours to reach Earth, and they were nearly halfway there allready. Jade glanced out a window at the stars.

Shadow smirked "Hmm I'll keep that in mind; and yes I know dragons are mythical creatures on earth and as such I'll try to keep an open mind" She caught Jade looking outside "Beautiful aren't they?" she asked quietly.

She nodded. "I'd never thought I'd get to see them from outer space." she chuckled softly.

"See, aren't chya glad ya came along?" Jazz grinned and came over to sit with them. He draped an arm over the jet's wings and shoulders.  
Jade nodded and put her arms around him too, squeezing slightly, as though to say "thanks for letting me come along."

A couple hours later, Skyfire piped "hold onto your seats, we're almost to the atmosphere..."

Shadow growled "I really hate this part" she muttered as she gently shook her brother awake. Bluestatic stirred and looked about slightly still a little out of it. Shadow just smirked "hold on bro" was all she had time to say before the began to descend.

The jet shuddered and vibrated at the turbulence, and Jade held onto a nearby ring that was used to tie the cords to to secure freight (kinda like the ones in a semi's trailer) to keep from being knocked over.

Bluestatic eeped and grabbed old of shadow who had also grabbed hold of one of the rings her wings semi spread for balance and her tail coiled tightly around her brother.

After a moment, the shaking stopped, and Skyfire had cleared the atmosphere. "Uh-oh. looks like we've got company." he said.

Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet were waiting for them.

"Prowl to base. The Decepticons were waiting for us. Requesting backup." he said calmly.

"This is silverbolt." came the reply. "we'll be right there."

"Prime here, I'll radio anyone else who is available."

Shadow growled at the jets that were waiting; "Sir do you want me to hold them off" she called out to no one in particular; her wings rustling as her tail unintwined from her brother, who had already brought out his rifle.

The dragoness transformer wasn't looking too eager for a fight; in fact she looked more eager to get out of Skyfire that to bash decepticon jets but Shadow did know what should come first. "She turned to jade; ya wanna lift again?" she asked with an almost inperceptable grin.

"Nah. ever been skydiving?" Jade grinned and moved her just-repaired wing. Prowl interrupted. "The aerialbots should be able to hold them off long enough for us to land. We are still to high up for any aerial combat." he looked at Shadow, meaning that this high in the atmosphere, there were hardly any wind currents to glide on.

Shadow just growled with all the glass and such around she couldn't 'see' the currents "very well sir" she replied to prowl before turning to jade "hmm depends I used to jump off very tall buildings just for the freefall" she commented absentmindedly...thinking back to the good old days before just shrugging "I'll have to try it here sometime"

Starscream and the other jets passed by Skyfire, firing off a row of shots, and the coneheads, Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge fired a row of missiles as they passed.

Skyfire winced as part of his side armor was blasted away, leaving a gaping hole.

Begfore they knew it, the cargo conartment depressurized, and the Autobots inside were sucked out...

Shadow instinctivly transformed the great feathered black and red dragon swooped after the falling autobots prepared to catch those who could not fly themselves to safety. Optics narrowing Shadow focused on the wind currents though the air was thin she was falling at a rapid enough pace to get underneath the other falling autobots.

It was at this moment that the airialbots arrived though they were needless to say shocked at the sight of a huge dragon attempting to catch some of their fellow autobots they immediately joined the fray catching those that they could.

Starscream cackled and wheeled around to fire at Prowl. He was forced to turn to one side when a row of shots peppered his left wing, though. Jade streeaked between them, giving Skydive enough time to catch the white Datsun.

Shadow to be honest wasn't happy and the reason for this...she had just caught Sunstreaker (who hadn't wasted any time in complaining and demanding to finish his fight). She pretty much ignored it...that was until he decided to try to be a pilot. Shadow decided that she would probably kill him later. Fanning her wings she caught her brother and managed to grab hold of one of the other autobots with her talons.

With the others caught the airialbots started to veer off aiming to get the groundbased 'bots to safety before they chased the seekers off. Silverbolt kept his team in order, making sure that none of them dropped their 'passengers' or did something remarkably stupid.

Jade sped up taking off after Starscream, who swerved, trying to out-maneuver her, and Skywarp teleported behind her. The jet's computer suddenly said "missile lock detected" and she did a side flip/barrel roll, slamming on the brakes. Skywarp and his missile careened by.

Meanwhile, Megatron and Shockwave were having to deal with shadow's old group. Shockwave glared as much as he could while they explained about needing to go to Earth to get Shadow back. Megatron tapped his fingers on the desktop as he listened. It would get rid of the autobots' new help...

Shadow put the autobots on the ground (even though Sunstreaker wouldn't get off until she threatened to roll over on him). She took to the sky again hoping that she would be able to help out by guarding those who were still carrying their charges. Shadow used her feathers to change the shape of her wing slightly allowing her to go slightly faster as she arrowed into the sky aiming to help out jade with the seekers.

The airialbots soon started to put their charges to ground allowing them off only to fly into the sky again following after Shadow; hoping that (a) the fact that there was a dragon in the sky and (b) there were more of them than there were Decepticons; would cause the Decepticons to give up and go home leaving them free to return to the ark.

Surely enough, the seekers freaked out a little over seeing a red-on-black dragon appear in the air next to them. especially Starscream, who'd had a bad run-in with one when he and a couple other Decepticons were teleported back to medival times.

Jade dodged and rolled, firing off a few shots after the retreating Decepticons.

Shadow roared her firebreath licking their afterburners as they sped off making sure that they didn't come back.

Down on the ground Bluestatic found himself under rather close scrutiny and needless to say having a group of Autobots watching him for some unknown reason was scary.

The airialbots were quite content with their flying so much so that Skydive took to trying to fly circles about the dragon who had recently appeared.

The rest of the aerialbots kept dogging the six seekers for a few miles, then circled back to make sure everyone was alright before heading back to the ark. 


	3. Chapter 3

Starscream's commline came on, and Megatron's voice came through it.

"Well?" his tone was expectant.

"Those dimwitted planes the aerialbots showed up." starscream screeched indignantly.

Megatron stifled a sigh, which was heard across the line anyways. "never mind. We have backup arriving across the spacebridge, Take the others and meet them at these coordinates. We will arrive there shortly." the line clicked off.

The other autobots pulled up to the ark, and transformed.

"It is good to be home!" Jazz grinned, heading inside.

Sunstreaker mumbled something about having an appointment with a washrack and some wax.

Jade swooped down and landed next to Shadow. "Welcome to Earth." she beamed.

Shadow backwinged and landed careful not to spray dust up everywhere. She grinned unfortuantly showing all her very sharp fangs. After allowing Bluestatic to dismount, she transformed. Shaking her wings a bit Shadow replied "Thank you I'm glad to be here."

Bluestatic, as soon as he had dismounted, just stood there in awe of the huge structure in fron of him.

"Woah" was all the young engineer could say.

Jade grinned. "This is the Ark. It's the Autobot ship that crashed here several million years ago. C'mon, I'll show you around." she headed inside.

Sunstreaker was leaning against teletraan, telling Bluestreak all about his trip, who had a million questions. Sunstreaker glanced up and halted mid-insult about his armor being scuffed as he was dropped/caught by Shadow.

Bluestatic as always was excited "yes please" he replied for both of them as he grinned excitedly. He didn't notice Sunstreaker and Bluestreak but he did notice practically everything else.

Shadow caught Sunstreaker's glare even if her brother did not she just game him a look that said 'It could be worse'. She wasn't frightened of him, Shadow knew his reputation but she as always made her own decisions about people. She did, however; smile slightly in greeting to Bluestreak. Flaring her wings a bit shadow brought them to rest on her back finding a more comfortable position for them.

The rangers waited silently as the low humming of the spacebridge faded. They were surrounded by a large metal circle, and green triangles lined the flat, dusty valley.

Soon they would have what they wanted, but for now they would wait. They stood in silence a mark of their respect and willingness to obey.

Starscream landed and looked over the group of animal 'formers. Skywarp snickered from behind him. "Gee, I thought we were running an army, not a zoo."

Thundercracker smacked him up back of his helmet to shut up.

As usual, the Rangers had expected this therefore they didn't do very much; Sky knew all about seekers mainly becuase he had once been one himself. Therefore he just gave a silent look to Skywarp which said 'is that the best you can do?'

Megatron landed, Soundwave on one side, and walked up. "I presume your trip was... pleasant." He nodded to the troup. "Which one of you is the leader?" he asked, looking over the tiger, griffen, phoenix, wolf and.bee.

Darkclaw looked to his leader "I am sir" he spoke in a low voice "my name is Darkclaw" he added again in a low voice.

Megatron nodded. "Follow us." He took to the air, leading them to their nearby temporary cavern base

Darkclaw nodded "as you wish" he spoke in that low voice and signaled to the others taking off transforming into griffon mode; Sky was the second off the ground transforming into his phoenixalt-mode. Next was Beedrill transforming into her bee mode; saber and windwhisper both stayed in their robot modes as they followed.

Hound walked up, Bumblebee and Spike trailing. Spike looked up, and his eyes got as wide as saucers. "Woah! a real dragon!" he breathed, looking up at Shadow.

"Hello, my name's Hound, and this is Bumblebee, and Spike." the green jeep motioned to the yellow Volkswagen beetle, and the shorter brunette human, who only came up to Bumblebee's chest in height. The human waved. "Hi." he said.

Trailbreaker walked up to stand behind the group. It seemed everyone wanted to know who these new transformers were.

Shadow's tail flicked slightly in amusement at Spike's awe. "Hello. my name's Shadow and this is my brother Bluestatic" as she motioned to the engineer who was looking about with wide opticed fasination.

She flared her wings showing her wingspan before settling them again. While not one for attention she did wan't to make a decent impression on one of earth's natives. "Looks like you've never seen a dragon before" she replied to Spike in a rather jovial voice. Smiling down at him; while normally quite detached Shadow decided to make an exception for the young human.

Upon hearing his name Bluestatic looked over to the new group and grinned in his own friendly way his attention was grabbed by Spike but he didn't react to it outwardly. Inside his curiosity was perked.

"well...uh..." spike stammered at first, then settled down. "I saw one once...when we were accidentally sent into the past.. It's a long story, I guess. eheh.." the teenager rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. "I've never seen one this close before, though." he added.

"Hmm well then I shouldn't spoil it for you" Shadow spoke with a grin stepping back a bit she transformed into her dragon alt-mode. Once she was settled on her hind legs sitting down Shadow looked down at the human "Now then what do you think?" she asked the young human. Before bringing her head down so he was at optic level at the same time trying not to scare him.

Spike walked up, looking at the dragon. "Wow... just like in the movies." he said. About that time, his dad called for him from the repairbay. "I guess... I'll see you later?" he gave the dragon another look, and turned towards where Sparkplug had called from.

Shadow smiled slightly deliberatley not grinning after all her teeth might just scare him. She cocked her head "Movies?" she muttered before remembering what Bluestatic had showed her "Ah yes". Noticing that Spike had to go Shadow nodded "Sure by the looks of things we'll be here a while so I'll see ya". Watching him go Shadow flicked her tail and checking she had enough room to transform did so.

"Never thought we'd be here at the start of this cycle hey 'Static" Shadow asked her brother giving him an affectionate nudge.

Bluestatic watched the human go; a little dissapointed that he hadn't been noticed that much.  
"heh sure didn't sis" Bluestatic replied returning the nudge with all good grace.

They spent an hour walking around the ark, and finally made it to a room filled with tables, and a row of dispensers against one wall. "And finally, the rec room." Jade said, walking in.

"Welcome to Earth!!!" came a chorus. there were about ten bots, and Jazz in the front, along with Wheeljack and a couple others. "We thought we'd give you guys a proper welcome, at least." Wheeljack said.

"Yeah." Wapath sounded " Jade told us all Wham! Bam! about you guys, Pow!"

Jade tried not to snicker at the tank's unusual choice of words. "he means the livejournal." she grinned. her grin dissapeared. "Uh-oh. I hope Prowl doesn't go over it like he said he was going to..."

Jazz handed her a canister of high-grade, and handed Shadow and Bluestreak one each. "I wouldn't be too worried 'bout it." he gave them a mischevious smile. "They've been doin' some street races I don't think they want Prowl ta find out about." He went over to a table and sat down.  
"So." wheeljack turned to Bluestatic. "I heard you were a junior mechanic back on cybertron." he said.

Shadow had followed jade around the ark but nothing had prepared her for the surprise. "Gee thanks" Shadow wasn't too sure what to say and pretty much stood there for a few sec's listening to everyone before cracking a smile "heh I guess I should have known" she told Jade after she'd explained about the Journal. Shadow had also had to supress a slight laugh at Warpaths expense; she'd never met anyone who liked to make their own sound effects before, and it was quite... amusing to say the least.

"He's right you know, with all the guys who have an interest in keeping stuff like that out of the public eye you don't really need to worry too much" she reasured Jade as she accepted the canister with a "thanks" and tasted some "hey this is good" she commented idly.

Bluestatic however almost jumped out of his plating; he wasn't much of a person for on the spot surprises however as soon as he got over it he was grinning broadly. "Thanks" he told Jazz as he recieved his canister. Before casting a speculative glance at Shadow.

"Sis with your enegon tolerance don't expect to be drunk anytime soon" before being adressed by Wheeljack. The young enginner was a little surprised but he didn't show it. "Yes that's right" he replied "Though I'm not that good at building stuff even if I am quite good at repairing; we'll it's usually all I get to do" he told the older engineer with a grin.

the stereo got turned on, which caused a brief argument betweeen Sunstreaker, who was watching the tv, and Sideswipe, who had turned on the radio. Sidewipe told Sunny to just scoot closer to the t.v. and turned the music down a little.

Wheeljack 'smiled', his headfins lighting a blue color. "Well, how would you like ta help me out in my workshop? I'm sure Prime could use another mechanic."

Shadow took a seat as well but had to rearange her wings a bit; she growled a bit but other wise sorted herself out. She wrapped her tail tightly arround her waist in order to avoid it getting trodden on.

She had seen the twins argument and had smirked to herself obviously thinking something pretty nasty but as soon as it had come it vanished. The dragoness simply took in everything that was going on and relaxed a bit.

Bluestatic however was enjoying talking to Wheeljack; he'd never met another engineer before so having one to talk to especially about some of his ideas was great. "Would I ever!" Bluestatic answered grinning. Something he had always wanted was to get taught about the stuff he didn't know.

"Be carefull, blue, 'Jacks inventions have a tendency to go boom sometimes." Jazz grinned at the engineer, who looked a bit embarrassed.

"Not everything I do blows up guys."

Jazz just grinned, glancing at Jade, who grinned back and shrugged like "Don't get me into this."

Shadow just grinned "Stats had plenty of things go boom; though I'm usually the only one dumb enough to test them" she warned "oh and he likes to take things apart so be warned" she grinned at her brother.

Bluestatic quite simply thumped his sister and pulled a face "very funny sis besides I never made you test it you do so of your own free will"

He didn't mind things blowing up several times he'd had to blow stuff up intentionally so he wasn't all that fussed.

Jade just chuckled.

Meanwhile outside a certain grasshopper was looking in. "I wonder" he muttered a grin forming on his face. He'd 'heard' all about Shadow from the rangers; heh he shouldn't have been eavesdropping but it was fun. Now he was just wondering what to do now or more specifically what chaos to cause now.

Kickback meanwhile was a little busy thinking about just what to do...he'd talked to the femme seeker quite a bit online. Now he was curious about what she was actually like. Well that and he was naturally a nosy guy. The grasshopper just idled outside the ark wondering how different it was in there to his home. The insecticon wasn't one for sentiment he was just generally curious; he'd had a friend once. That he remembered and he also remembered how it had turned out.

Shaking his head kickback dispelled these thoughts and began to cook up a plan...a rather amusing plan.

Shadow took Bluestatic's swipe in good grace "heh your my brother of course I'm going to do all sorts of wierd things for you" she spoke matter of factly and gave her brother a friendly nudge.

After finishing her cube, Jade glanced at her chronometer. "I almost forgot. I've got an evening patrol to run in a few minutes." she glanced at Wheeljack and Jazz. "We'll keep 'em company." Jazz assured with a smile.

Jade smiled back and nodded.

"See ya!" Bluestatic called out as he waved to Jade before Shadow kicked him under the table. So with a grin he curled up against his sister and rested his head on her shoulder. The kind of way he knew Shadow didn't enjoy when in public still it was fun; baiting the dragoness. That and he knew just how far he could go before she snapped.

"Have fun" Shadow told jade as she left kicking her brother under the table Shadow sighed but this time didn't push him off. To be honest she was a little too tired to care. Leaving him be she simply sat and listened to what was going on in the room.

Kickback was about to implement his plan when the very seeker he was aiming at having a chat with walked out; oh this will be fun he thought to himself as he got ready to follow if needed to he might just force her to land then again that Jet judo the autobot twins seemed to enjoyed did look a little interesting. With a very wide grin the grasshopper ducked back into the shadows and waited.

Jade could've sworn she heard the bushes rattle. eh. Might have been spike or one of the other humans that hung around the Ark. The seeker glanced around, sighed, munmbled something about Red Alert giving her the crappy routes, and transformed, igniting her engines, waiting for them to heat up so she could take off.

Kickback was indeed getting a laugh out of this. Moving around he would have to wait until she was at least out of shouting range that way if he disabled her comlink they would have to worry about being disturbed. The grasshopper got ready as soon as she was off he would follow; heh it was surprising how stealthy he could be when he wanted to.

Kickback listened to her mumble about her route heh at least he never had to do patrol...well unless they were hungry they didn't go out much anyway.

the rosy-red and blue-colored jet rolled forward, then let off the brakes, and started her ascent.

Kickback broke into a run as soon as he was far enough away from the ark he turned on his anti-gravs and flew into the sky. Landing quite safely on top of the jet. "Hello; told ya I'd visit" he spoke in a quiet tone prepared if neccessary to drive the jet quite litterally into the ground.

"Now hows about you go down so I can have a propper chat with ya" he told her a friendly smile across his features. Kickback knew how to put on a face he didn't feel and right now he knew that in order to quench his curiousity he'd have to appear friendly and genuinely interested.

Jade winced as the insecticon landed on her, his steel-clawed feet digging into her plating.

She cast her scanners back towasrds the Ark.

Only three miles out. Red Alert would have a heyday if he learned she was talking to him at all.

She swung around to the coastline, dipping down to where the Oregon land dropped off in sharp cliffs. "I can't land with you on top of me. Just so you know if I transform and throw you off, It's unintentional." She slowed even more over the water, where the water the rock face of the cliffs with nothing but blue under them. She rounded a sharp wall of rock jutting out, to reveal a small beach.

Not that she trusted him not to bite her or something. (she was made out of metal, after all, and that was what insecticons ate, right?)

Kickback just grinned "that's okay, you don't have to worry. I get more grief from the others"

in order to prove his 'trust' Kickback let go of Jade and engaged his anti-gravs. to be truthful, he hoped he wouldn't have to bring her down but it was important in order to learn what he wanted to; to make sure she didn't get in troubble and that might mean roughing her up a bit...meh he could do that later.

Keeping close to her Kickback made sure that his safety was ensured. After all having a swarm of Autobots descend on him out of the blue wasn't something he had been planning on.  
The jet transformed and landed, casting a glance up at the cliff face. "I'm not too far off my patrol route. hopefully they won't notice..." she mumbled, thinking aloud.

Hmm well if they do notice I could always shoot you" Kickback replied before sitting down on the sand "Wanna sit with me?" he asked in an innocent sounding tone. Twitching his anntenni Kickback looked about; then finding nothing pulled a twig (though in reality it was more like a tree branch) and started to much. Remembering his manners he offered a bit to Jade. He knew he had to be a little slow and cautious in order to learn about this person so he was willing to take his time. After all this was a game he was good at.

"No thanks." Jade wondered how he could eat wood, metal, and anything/everything else in sight. Insecticons must be made different than normal mechs. She seated herself on a nearby rock, glancing up at the cliff face again. "So, didjya ever find those snapshots of Skywarps pranks?" she smirked, chuckling slightly.

"That was you I talked to on the journal, right? at least I hope it was you, if it wasn't..." she trailed off, realizing she was rambling, and scuffed the toe of one shoe on the sand in front of her.

Shrugging, Kickback continued to eat his twig; enjoying it's taste. At the mention of Skywarp's pranks Kickback grined and pulled a couple of pictures out of subspace. "Of course" he replied. "hehe yeah that was me; we don't tend to get much to do so we tend to either watch skywarp or go online, both are rather amusing at times"

Jade nodded, taking the pictures and looking them over, snickering loudly. "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of these I could have, would you?" she flipped to another picture, Megatron with a bewildered look on his face and a cowering Starscream drenched in neon multi-colored paint. she laughed out loud.

Kickback was glad to see he was getting somewhere "me? would I ever..." he quickly drops a spare set in clear view "no of course I don't" he replies with a grin. As he snickers at some of the pranks he'd 'captured'. Now seeing the almighty bucket head in neon pink paint was funny...still when skywarp had rigged his fusion cannon to fire paintballs; the pure look of bewilderment was the best.

She flipped through the other photos quickly. There was one of Megatron in neon pink paint, one where Ramjet and Dirge were being held together by what seemed to be... duct... tape?

There were others, too, like the time Laserbeak had been reprogrammed to think he was a real condor and making a nest in the rafters, getting soundwave dunk, and the funniest by far, painting "I'm stupid, but he's dumber" with an arrow on the back on Starscream's wings, so when he turned around it was pointing at Megatron.

Not to mention sticking signs with stupid sayings on Starscream's back, like 'kick me' and stuff. Jade giggled as she flipped through them. Too bad she couldn't tell Sideswipe. These were pretty funny!

She laughed out loud at the pics. "So why did you jump on me like that? Surely you didn't tackle me just because you wanted to give me funny prank photos...did you?" Jade looked bewildered.

He was supposed to be a Decepticon. She knew the Insecticons didn't really have much use for Megatron, or the other Decepticons. But she still didn't trust him not to lead her into a trap or something.

Kickback shrugged "wanted someone to talk to; Bombshells sick and Shrap's running ragged around 'con base...normally I'd help but, I really couldn't be bothered besides Skywarp's planning something and i really don't want to get caught by him" he grinned at the bewildered Jet "besides I'm curious about you" he spoke in a matter of fact tone and shrugged.

Kickback didn't remember much about the time before he woke up as an insecticon and those he did remember he didn't like. If it wasn't for the fact he got hungry and enjoyed creating a little chaos ever now and then he probably wouldn't care much about the autobots and would probably have just let them be; but then as he'd said before where was the fun in that?

"Okay..." Jade said slowly, glancing at the cliff above her. No one knew about this little beach and cave, but at least her glances might make the insecticon nervous, in case he was going to try anything.

"Like what?" Kickback asked, curiousity perked; she was a strange one this seeker and he was genuinely curious. Kickback was used to talking to people he didn't know too well so unlike jade he was quite happy to just sit here and chat...as long as he got something out of it he was happy.

"Well... there's a couple message boards, a fan-fiction site..." the jet trailed off, listing off a few other various sites.

"Mmm sounds like your quite an outgoing person. Me, I just do this and that; sometimes I post on message boards; sometimes i just roam around a bit" Kickback put his arms behind his head as he lay down "I often just go with the flow; kinda like my name I just kickback and relax" he grinned at that. As he'd originally anticipated Kickback was finding a lot out about Jade's character; so this had been worthwhile after all.

Jade grinned. "I really should get back to my route before Prowl finds out I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Not to mention if a certain red and white finds out I'm even talking to you..." her tone took on a grumbling quality upon mentioning Red Alert. "I'm sure you read my post's about him." she rolled her optics.

Kickback actually laughed "Yes the infamous security director; who doesn't know about him and his paranoia" he stood up and dusted some sand off. "Looks like I'll be seeing you again sometime then...though don't expect me to go easy on ya if were on a battlefield. Though, a word of advice, it's best to stay away from us when were hungry"

Kickback grinned before turning round and engaging his anti-gravs. Hey, do me a favour, copy some of the snapshots and post them around the ark; I'd do it myself but I don't think I'd get in" he shrugged. Jade chuckled at the comment.

Flying off Kickback thought about all he'd learned about the femmeseeker; yeah she was an interesting one alright and he'd have to play close attention to her in future. He might just learn something.

Jade reminded herself to email him thanks when she got back. She snickered at the photos, and put the datapad into a subspace pocket.

Kickback flew back to the insecticons lair to find Shrapnel nursing a damaged anteni and bombshell looking strangely green. Inside he groaned; he should have just stayed outside.

Ignoring the questioning looks Kickback made his way to his part of their lair and lied down; he wouldn't recharge until the others did, after all he didn't want them interfering with his buisness.

Back at the ark Bluestatic had pretty much fallen asleep lying clurled up against his sister. He always felt secure around her and he knew she would do everything in her power to keep him safe.

Shadow was quite simply finding everything that was going on interesting; people occasionally came over to talk to her and she would oblige them for a while. But they would leave eventually saying that they didn't want to disturb her brother...well it was a good thing Shadow was used to silence.

The jet finished one pass of her patrol, passed over the inactive volcano the Ark was buried under, and headed back out.

Shadow grinned at her brother who was still snug asleep; perhaps for once she had peace. Still that part of her spark that ached to be reunited with the others irritated her; she knew she'd never have true peace but at least she had what was dear to her.

Meanwhile, Megatron was scheming. He'd lost the traitor Shadow once, and therefore lost one of his combiner teams. he had been none-too-pleased about it, but now he had a chance to re-unite histeam. And this time, he would make sure she didn't get away...

DarkClaw and the others had known that their beast modes would case a reaction but they hadn't expected to be avoided like a plauge of scraplets. Though soon that would change; their erring comrade would be brought back and this time she wouldn't leave...

The short, yellow and blue Ford Festiva (hatchback that looks like a lopped-off station wagon) skittered down the hall after his teammate, a light grey MQ1 Predator named Beacon. Driveby, their team leader, just shook her head. The Toyota Camry had decided to come visit the Ark, since it had been a month or so, and they were getting low on supplies at their nearby base. Not to mention she hadn't seen a certain black and white 2CO, who she had a budding relationship (she hoped) with.

A small tank, a Challenger 2, bounced after the duo, calling for Cable, the blue and yellow car, to slow down. Beside Driveby, the white camry, was Ty, a black Chevy Bronco with bright teal sidestripes. One her other side was Gumlock, a black colored jet, who's color scheme was actually also dark blue and green, but those colors were so dark you couldn't tell they were blue and green unless he was under a bright light.

Shadow heard unfamiliar footsteps and voices outside the rec.room so naturally her wing curled round her brother protectively. She knew there were other autobots about but Shadow never took chances.

Bluestatic didn't even stir he just snuggled a little closer to his sister.

Beacon, the light grey jet, came running into the rec room, the minibot-sized yellow and blue Cable following him.

Shadow watched as the two transformers entered the room; the fact that nobody had raised arms against them calmed her a bit. Still she kept her red-colored optics on them just to make sure.

Beacon looked over at her, and Cable waved. "Hiya!" he headed for where she was sitting.

"Hey guys, wait up!" the mud-colored Cap, The tank who was actually camo-colored, but mostly mud colored, currently, came in behind them.

Cap bounced after them, and Driveby, the white car and Ty, the black Chevy Blazer, walked in after them.

A few miles away, Sky was out flying; even though Saber was travelling on the ground, he considered himself to by flying solo. With nothing much to do his mind wandered; argh they had come so close! Yet again the dragon had escaped them with an almost wild avian shriek Sky vented his fustrations. Oneday the'd have her back; even if they had to kill that pest of a brother of hers to do it. 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I thought I'd put up the link to the fancharacter profiles, no that they're up where you readers can get to them. First off, DarkStatic's characters, the **Decepticon Rangers:** Darkclaw, Sky, Saber, Beedrill, Windwhisperer, Shadow (used to be one), and their gestalt merger, Pathfinder, also, Shadow's younger brother, Bluestatic. can be found at: http://dark-static. Girl also had some fancharacters in this, so I'll put up the links to hers, too. :-)

Alpha: both of them together: finally, I got all my RP series characters' profiles up on one page, except for Driveby (I don't know why she's giving me so much trouble. LOL.

But those can be found at:

http://jadeseeker. that that's been posted, on to the fiction.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beacon looked over at her, and Cable waved. "Hiya!" He headed for where she was sitting. "Hey guys, wait up!" the mud-colored Cap, The tank who was actually camo-colored, but mostly mud colored, currently, came in behind them.

"greatings" Shadow replied folding her wing back a fraction causing her brother to mumble in his recharge. She watched as the tank came up behind them idly wondering just who they all were.

Cap bounced after them, and Driveby, the white car and ty, the black chevy blazer walked in after them.

Shadow kept an optic on the group she looked at them carefully her calm detatched nature snapping into place with an almost audible click.

Bluestatic started to stir a little at all the noise, not enjoying it too much.

As a result Shadow allowed him to snuggle into her wing and arm. But all the while she was impassive otherwise. She knew about the others in the room but until she knew for certain Shadow would keep her guard up.

the trio got their energon cubes, and took a seat at a nearby table. Driveby and Ty joined them. Beacon glanced over. "If you don't mind my asking, you two are new to the Ark"  
Shadow nodded "Yeah we just arrived we were on an outpost on Cybertron" she stated before Bluestatic mumbled "it got blizted" raising his head a bit Bluestatic looked at them before muttering something inaudible to his sister and curling back up.

Beacon nodded, blue visor dimming for a second. He went over to the table where his comrades were seated, giving the dragon her space.

Shadow was glad to see them leave; not that she was nasty but they'd had a long day and right now she couldn't care less about anyone...well except for 'Static.

---------------

Sky was curious he knew were the ark was; why not fly a little closer to it. The pheonix radioed down to Saber and she agreed. The more they knew about their 6th's new home the better.

-----------

Prime finished looking over the last report, and set it on the stack at the corner of his desk. The Decepticons had been rather quiet since they got back. Strange, since they were waiting for them as soon as they entered the atmosphere... what was that about, he pondered.

-----------

Shadow's suddenly realised that Prime didn't exactly know about her. She'd been secretly waiting for someone to ask about the attack that they had endured as they had entered the atmoshphere. Making up her own mind Shadow gently nudged her brother awake.

"I'm going to tell" was all she needed to tell him, waking up immediately. Bluestatic looked nervous.

"Do you think it's a good idea?" he asked

"Nope but it one of those things, you wan't to stay here?"

"No, I'm coming" the tone in Bluestatic's voice was one of finality.

Nodding Shadow got up and politly excused herself before heading to the Autobot leaders office; her brother in tow.

When they reached the door Bluestatic quickly asked "You sure?"

"More than ever" was the reply. And with that Shadow gave a gentle but firm and loud enough knock.

Prime looked up when the dorchime rang. "Come in." he sounded.

Shadow would have taken in a deep breath if she could however instead she just opened the door slightly "Can I speak with you sir? It is rather important" she asked. Her wings drawn rather close around her; she looked a little nervous though she wasn't nevous about talking to Prime she was more nervous about what she had to say.

Prime nodded, notcing her tenseness. "Of course." He set aside the datapads, giving her full atention. "Have a seat." he motioned to the chair in front of his desk.

"Thank you sir" Shadow spoke quietly signaling to Bluestatic to wait outside.

"I err..." she paused for a bit before gathering herself.

"I think I should tell you a little about a certain incident that happened a few years back sir as I believe it might have had something to do with the attack on Skyfire when my brother and I came here" she paused waiting to see Prime's reaction and to judge whether or not to continue as she had been planning.

---------------------

Outside Bluestatic stood guard, he wouldn't allow anyone to eavesdrop on this conversation nor would he allow anyone in; without him seeing them first. If someone did arrive he'd send a message to his sister and see if she needed more time to compleate her story or not. Then he'd do what ever he thought he needed to do.

Prime nodded. "Go on."

He knew nothing of shadow's past, or how she could be involved with the Decepticons attacking Skyfire as they were coming back. Well, not that it mattered. She was an Autobot. And that was what counted.

"Well I think it has something to do with the Rangers, sir." she paused seeming to struggle with herself "I think they want me back" her tail twitched with anxiety she hated to reveal anything about her past but she reminded herself that this was important.

"A few years back I was kinda like a mercenary; before I even knew my brother was still alive; I hunted and killed pirates using what I earned from doing so to live on." again she paused. "well, I'm not sure how it happened but I became involved with one of the earlier combiner projects; and the rangers are the others...I don't think I have to tell you it was a success. But when I found out Bluestatic was still alive I left. They're still not quite happy about it; and I basically joined up." Shadow finished her story and folded in on herself almost visibly her wings tightened around her frame and her tail wrapped around the base of her legs.

-------------------------

Outside Bluestatic was ready to jump in and defend his sister if he had to. Otherwise he stayed outside and kept a silent vigil. He was a little concerned as he stood outside but so far he hadn't heard any shouting or anything so he deemed Shadow was safe.

------------------

Prime nodded. "You're sure they're no longer influencing your thoughts?" he queried, trying to make it sound like an innocent question. But it was one that he had to ask.

Shadow gave a wry grin "They wish they could...but no they don't influence my thoughts otherwise I'd have gone back. Though it hurts I block them; my mental defences have grown quite...strong." She replied not at all bothered by the question she understood it. After all it is exactly what she would have done were she Prime. "Though normally this would cause complications as long as I have my brother I don't think you need to worry about me snapping".

Shadow did realise that geasults even if they couldn't stand each other did need to merge every now and then in order to stay sane; however because of Bluestatic this didn't bother Shadow she instead was merely fiercely protective of him.

He nodded. "Thank you for informing me." after a moment, he asked "Was there anything else?"

"not really, just to a slight warning sir; they're pretty desparate I'd hazard a guess that they'd be willing to do pretty much anything sir; they've already tried to harm 'Static and they'd probably do it again." she paused "in a way sir it's why I usually distance myself from people" Shadow gave a wry smile "Otherwise sir; no there is nothing else"

Prime nodded. "I'll inform the others to keep an optic out. Also, make sure you tell someone if you decide to leave the ark."

--------

Meanwhile, in the rec. room...

Cable leaned back in his chair. "I wonder who the new chick is?" he sipped his cube. Driveby steepled her fingers. "I don't know. But I'm sure we could ask someone."

Ty smiled. "You haven't gone to say hello to Prowl yet."

Driveby glanced at the black truck-femme. "True." she nodded. "He would know." she got up. Then glanced back at the mechs. "Since you're so curious."

Beacon smirked. "We're the curious types, aren't we guys?"

A chorus of "yep", "uh-huh" and "yeah" came from the table's other occupants. Ty looked up.

"Should I come along, or are you going alone?" she asked.

Driveby looked over at her. "There's no need for a bodygaurd inside the Ark, I shall do fine alone, Ty. Thank you anyway." the white car nodded, and Ty nodded back.  
-  
Back in Prime's office, Shadow nodded. "thank you sir, and I shall do as you ask" she stood up and gave quick salute taking Prime's parting as a dismissal. Flicking her wings a bit Shadow exited and made sure the door was shut before turning to her brother "that went well".

"Did it now?" Bluestatic replied in a disbelieving tone

"Yeah he's not mad at me and I'm not going to be shoved in the brig to rust" Shadow replied totally serious.

"Well that's good; but?" he asked again.

"Prime's a little wary; I'm not to leave the ark without telling someone first and all that stuff" Shadow replied.

The siblings returned to the rec. room mainly because the currently had nothing else to do. As they did Shadow explained exactly what had happened in Prime's office.

Bluestatic and Shadow returned to where the had been sitting previously; while Bluestatic was more outgoing than Shadow; both of them were rather shy when it came to people they didn't know very well.

--------------------------

Mean while Sky wasn't very happy. The pheonix had landed outside the ark; far enough away not to draw attenion to himself while Saber was padding silently forward. Sky was a little skittish; he hated to sit around for long periods of time; but more than that the sense that they would be able to get close to their dragoness made him stay where he was.

Saber on the other hand had activated her invisibility device and was hidden well enough from sensors and view alike. Her movements were soundless as she made her way into the Autobot base.

--------------

Jade landed from patrol and headed inside. Driveby and her team were supposed to have stopped over from their base inside the moutain a few miles away for supplies, and she wanted to say hello. But first, she had to head to Prowl's office to check in.

---------

Cap went to find Terra. She'd said something about saying hello to her brother, or someone, so he thought he'd go wander the Ark and try to find her.

Terra looked up from where she was leaning against her brother in their room while watching TV. She saw Cap and smiled. "Hiyas." She waved.

CyberFin looked up, snorted, and went back to watching "Jaws".

Terra rolled her optics. "Sorry 'bout him."

Cap glanced at him. "Um...hi." he said shyly, and waved. He wondered if the shark-bot had gotten any stronger since they first met... he was still slightly wary of the brother-beating-him-up possibility...

Cyber nodded and let go of his little sister. "Go. Don't get into trouble. Again."

Terra rolled her optics and wapped him. "Yes, mother." She smirked, walking away.

Cyber muttered something along the lines of, "She'll thank me one of these days."

-  
And, in another part of the Ark, in the crew quarters, a certain set of twins were trying to watch TV in their quarters...

Alpha poked her brother, who growled.

"Please."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Fine." Alpha pouted.

Her brother growled. "Okay! Whatever."

"Yay!"

Alpha shoved her brother and grabbed the remote. She turned the TV to wrestling and grinned. "Get 'em, HBK!"

Omega facepalmed. "My sister...the wrestling addict."

WACK!

Omega groaned and rubbed where the wrench had hit his head. "Ow."

---------------

Shadow had been watching the various autobots with interest her tail flicking abentmindedly every now and then. Something in her spark began to ache and while she showed no outward signs of her discomfort; she knew her instincts were telling her that something was wrong. Optics narrowing Shadow surveyed the room with an expert eye checking everything.

---------------------------

Saber mean while was padding softly into the rec. room; still hidden she kept to the darker parts before she spied the dragoness sitting a little off to the side with her brother. Saber hated the engineer; he had taken what was theirs with a surge of almost irrational anger Saber padded towards them.

---------------------------

Outside Sky noticed something was wron.g Saber had found something; perhaps their time to strike was close at hand. He patched a quick transmission through to Darkclaw. He was rewarded with a reply that stated simply "we're coming".

-----------

the trio of Marauders saw Shadow and her brother walk in.

"you talk to her." Beacon said in a near-whisper.

"No, you go talk to her." Cable retorted.

Gunlock rolled his optics. "I'm not going to go talk to her. You go. You're the one who wnated to know who she is anyway."

Cable looked at his energon cube. Then the yellow and blue car glanced at shadow.

"oh, all right." he scooted his chair back and got up.

--------

Saber moved to the left, where the shadows of the rec room met the wall. She could see the two of them sitting together. Now if only she could get a little closer...

-------

Shadow was still keeping a wary eye; her hand had twitched when Cable had move towards her though she noticed it only out of the corner of her optic. Not sure where they were going she focused on them for a minute unknowingly leaving her brother open for an attack.

--------------------

Bluestatic was also watching the various autobots however his interest was more in their mannerisms and how they were constructed. Bluestatic noticing his sister just rolled his optics and muttered about her being paranoid and moved over a bit to better observe his comrades moving just of Shadow's reach; his curiosity getting the better of him.

---------------

Outside, Sky noticed the rest of the rangers comming in. Darkclaw was as usual the first to land followed by the others. "Is everything ready?" he asked.

The pheonix nodded "I'd imagine Saber's just about ready" he replied quietly as they crouched there waiting.

Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp landed, and Starscream gave Sky a sneer. "I don't see why Megatron sent us to help you. Can't you do this alone?" he said in that nasal, holier-than-thou tone.

The insecticons landed behind them. They didn't see why they had been called out here either, but if there was energon cubes in it for them, who were they to complain?

------

Meanwhile, inside, Saber slowly slinked towards her target in beast mode. He didn't even see her. This was perfect!

------

Cable walked up to one side of the table, temporarily blocking the tiger's view of her target. "Hi, um... is this seat taken?" he tried to put on a friendly smile.

Jade walked in. "Hi guys." she called. Cable turned long enough to wave. "Hi."

-----------

Sky meerly gave Starscream a look back, Having once been a seeker, he was well aware of their arrogant attitudes; that and he was damnwell thankful that he was no longer one of them.

Sky spoke quietly "no sir we just thought we'd give you the oppertunity to show us your ledgendary selves in action." The way he said it gave no way for starscream to reply to the obvious micky-take ((don't know a better desc for it)) other than cause the rest of the rangers to not watch his back as much as they might.

Kickback was just bored why the hell he had to be out here he had no idea...even if he did manage to get those pictures into the ark; meh maybe megsy was punishing them. Restraining a snigger, Kickback couldn't help but spare a glance at the purple seeker; imagining all sorts of things that might happen to him if Megatron found out. Contenting himself with eating a small twig kickback sat down to wait for the order; whether it came from Shrapnel or Starscream didn't really matter to him.

Starscream just looked suprised. Well, his flying skills were ledgendary... at least to him, he thought.

-----------------------------

Shadow looked impassively at Cable for a second before shaking her head; her features softening into a small smile "No; not at all" she replied. Coiling her tail around the base of her chair and folding her wings so they rested a little more comfortably; even though at a moments notice they could snap open and give her any neccessary balance. She motioned for him to take the seat.

Jade went over to where Beacon and Gulock were sitting and took the seat Cable had just vacated. "What are you guys up to?" she asked. "Nothing." Gunlock shrugged. Beacon turned to regaurd the jet. "Cable wanted to know who the new people are, so we suggested he go talk to them." he shrugged. "Ah." Jade nodded. She glanced over at where they were sitting Turning to see Jade; Shadow gave a friendly nod

"have fun?" she asked in a slight conversational tone. The femmeseeker shrugged. "Guess so."

if Shadow wanted to talk, she'd come over to the table she and the fliers were at, and she didn't want to distract Cable... She went to get another energon cube.

Bluestatic however was looking about wide opticed having just calcualted the engineering possiblities of various items in the room. He looked back at Shadow only to notice someone else was there as well. He better not damn well try to chat her up Bluestatic thought to himself showing the little known fact that he was just as protective of Shadow as she was of him. Even though he prefered to protect her from things he could deal with.

------------------

Shrapnel was busy looking for stuff he could use to make clones of himself with, and thinking of the possibilities of all the stuff he could use once they got inside, and Bombshell was double-checking his cerebro-shells. He might be able to use one of them to gain control of Shadow, but he didn't want the autobots getting their hands on one of his shells, and discovering the technology behind them. Then his cerebro-shells would be useless..

Sky, seeing the seeker had nothing more to say, turned his attention back to the entrance. Darkclaw flicked his wings waiting for Saber to make her move the leader of the rangers ruthlessly quelled the bubbling sense of anticipation he was beginning to feel. Beedrill looked over at the insecticons with a manner of interest but otherwise seemed bored. Windwhisper made sure his medkit was prepared and drew his gun.

----------------

Meanwhile, Driveby tapped the doorchime to Prowl's office. The door slid open.

Prowl looked up from his desk as the white femm entered. "Hello, Driveby, what can I do for you?" he asked without looking up.

-----------------

Shadow just gave her brother a square look as if to say 'knock it off bro'. She waited for Cable to start otherwise she'd be quite happy not to say anything; she was a little sadistic like that sometimes.

Bluestatic shrugged with a what? expression otherwise he continued to look at the far more interesting items and people that were in the room.

Cable gave the pair a friendly smile. "So, are you guys from around here?" he asked half-seriously.

----------

Saber transformerd oh-so-slowly, making sure not to be heard. She aimed at Bluestatic's helmet, and started to squeeze the trigger...


	5. Chapter 5

The red-on-black dragon looked at the little yellow car.

"no" Shadow replied quite flatly "we came in from cybertron a little while ago". Shadow shrugged. Like she'd tell a stranger her complete origins.

Bluestatic piped up "Yup just got here; I'm Bluestatic by the way; and the almost anti-social dragon is my elder sister Shadow" he spoke in greeting.

Cable nodded. "I'm Cable, an these are my pals Gunlock..."

(he motioned to the darkly colored black green and blue jet, although the blue and green were so dark he looked completely black)

"...and Beacon." (he motioned to the grey-colored blue-visored flier)

"And I'm sure you know Jade." he grinned, red optics brightening for a second. Jade just waved.

"My other teammates are around here somewheres. Big chick, about yay high, goes by 'hey you'.." he held a hand up over his head for emphasis. "Or Ty." he chuckled.

It was about that time a loud 'CRACK!' was heard, and a beam of light shot out of nowhere, nearly taking Cable's hand off. The car yeeped loudly like a little girl and ducked.

The blast knocked Bluestatic completely out of his seat, a smoking hole left in the side of his helmet. Jade, Beacon and Gunlock few out of their seats, drawing their guns. Gunlock and Beacon blocked the doorway.

Shadow looked over to the two jets and nodded taking note of who they were and their names. She did raise an optic ridge at Cables desc. of Ty but otherwise didn't really say much; well she didn't really get time to.

Shadow heard the 'crack' and instinctivly ducked. Turning to see Gunlock and Beacon blocking the doorwa.y

Shadow fearfully turned to regard her brother. Shadow didn't scream or cry out at seeing Bluestatic on the floor instead she padded over to him and gently gave him a slight nudge with her hand.

When he didn't move Shadows optics narrowed to slits.

Her wings half spread Shadow looked about ready to commit murder. The dragoness silently sniffed the air and trianglated the angle from which the shot came from. Oh she knew who it was alright. Only Saber would be able to get in here undetected and be prepared to shoot 'Static.

Sure it could have been one of Soundwave's spies, except they wouldn't have shot him in that way; no that was all Saber.

Emitting a feral growl Shadow transformed into her dragon mode and crouched ready to spring; the minute Saber moved all hell would be let lose.

--------------------

Outside, Kickback was bored. He hated waiting; he was sincerly hoping that this whole ordeal would get started already.

The rangers heard the shot Darkclaw expectantly turned to Starscream "would you do the honours sir?" he asked in a polite tone.

Sky transformed into his pheonix mode and waited for the order. Windwhisper was ready and Beedrill buzzed lightly in excitement.

Kickback, however, just looked at the scene unfolding; this could be fun he thought to himself, or suicidal. Therefore as the good insecticon that he was he waited for the order.

------------

Jade hit her comm. Intruder alert! get Ratchet down to the rec room, NOW!" she yelled.

The car's armor was allready starting to dullen in color.

Saber transformed back to beast mode as the Seeker yelled, hoping the ruckus would cover the sound of her transforming. Now, how to get past those two fliers blocking the door?

wait, they couldn't see her. The tiger had to get Shadow to follow her, though.. hmmm.

The tiger ran and leapt at the smaller one, who was grey.

Beacon fired off a row of shots as he was tackled, but they missed. Once in the hall, she turned visible, daring Shadow to follow her.

Saber snarled at Gunlock, and looked at Shadow like 'catch me if you can' and bolted down the corridor towards the exit.

Starscream drew himself up. "Decepticons. ATTACK!"

----------

Driveby had just opened her mouth to ask Prowl something, but the base's alarm went off. Both rushed to the control room.

----------

The insecticons transformed and started firing at the walls of the Ark. Bombshell took his position behind a rock near the ark's entrance. All he and his fellow insecticons had to do was sneak up behind Shadow and get her on the ground. Then he could implant a cerebro-shell.

True, it would inhibit her higher brain functions, so he wasn't certain whether the gestalt would be able to merge or not...

Shadow roared pouncing after the tiger; all sense had been driven from her mind;

((note: it'd probably take someone like sunstreaker or sideswipe to hold shadow down when she's in dragon mode and in pretty much a bezerk fury))

She roared again when Saber had managed to get through the door this time she used her fire breath. Luckily she missed Gunlock, though no doubt he felt the heat of it. Unfortuantly Shadow couldn't fit through the door; and right now she didn't have enough of a coherant thought pattern to get through the door so she quite litterally ripped her way through it. Roaring and allowing her fire to lick the corridor, the dragoness was quite litterally out of it.

-----------------------

Sky just rolled his optics but took off nevertheless activating his flamethrower he took delight in destroying various parts of the mountain.

Windwhisper shot at anyone who came near the entrance only Shadow would be permitted to leave. Beedrill used her disrupting ability to try to quiet down the ark's systems. Darkclaw just shot stuff occassionally calling his team to order.

-----

Kickback just did what shrapnel told him to; shooting the arks walls was boring but soon enough the dragon should make her exit.

Then the fun would really start.

Saber reached the exit, hoping Shrapnel's stun gun would work on the angry dragon. The rest of the Autobots were not too far behind her, including five out of the six members of Driveby's team.

Shadow was waaaayy to mad to care anymore; the dragon practically burst out of the ark and took wing as soon as there wasn't anything above her head, roaring Shadow snapped at the seekers and used her fire on any who got close enough. Circling, Shadow was pretty much ready to attack anyone who moved (excluding autobots; she had enough restraint not to go on a complete murderous rampage).

---------

Kickback started in surprise at the speed of the dragon frowning he nudged Shrapnel hoping his 'leader' could get a clear shot; he wasn't in the mood to be dragon food.

Shrapnel sighted the dragon's head, and let off not just one shot, but an entire row of shots.

He was pretty sure he had hit her, but couldn't tell while she was still in the sky. he kept firing. By now, the rest of the autobots were out of the Ark, and Driveby's team had taken cover. Gunlock, Jade, and Beacon took to the air to help shadow with the seekers. Driveby, Ty, and Cable fired at the other insecticons on the ground, and Shrapnel kept firing at shadow.

Shadow's head wasn't easy to hit as it was Shrapnel had only hit it twice and as far gone as she was, all it did was make her more angry now she started to use her fire on the insecticons. Shadow's ruby optics were blazing with their own fire.

She was going to rip them apart when she got her claws on them!

----------

Sky had to dodge getting shot at by Shrapnel as well as dodging Jade. He gave a shriek as he tried to grab Jade's wings and rip them off. Beedrill tried to use her frequencies but soon figured out that would do more harm than good, so instead took to shooting the autbots along with windwhisper.

Darkclaw watched the angry dragon; the power and force behind it should have been for them!! Not for some worthless autobot engineer who couldn't hold his own in a fight!

Meanwhile, Wheeljack and Ratchet had hurried to the rec. room to find Bluestatic, and rushed himto the repairbay...

----------------

As for kickback, well, he was having a tough time of it as it was; trying to bring that dragon down was like trying to stop the tide; virtually impossible.

He kept firing, though. He wasn't about to disobey orders; And he knew the other Decepticons would give him sufficient cover fire, so he wouldn't have to worry about getting hit. He was hitting her, why wasn't it working?

Jade barrel rolled and dodged as the phoenix's claws scraped across her wings. Beacon dove in behind her, targeting Sky. He fired off a missile, and Sky dodged.

Jade also did as it whizzed inches from her. "HEY! watch where you're shooting those things!!!"

"Grrr. I wish he would stay still." the black Avro Vulcan B-2 growled.

Skywarp teleported in front of Jade, who slammed on her airbrakes. Gunlock skidded past, right into Skywarp.

Shrapnel got another shot in on Shadow's head. Her servos should have been completely paralised by now. So why was she still moving?

Driveby hit her comm. "Cap, that was an alarm!! where are you"  
Said tank looked up from where he was kissing his girlfriend. "oops..." he glanced at Terra. "um..."

-----------------

At the next few shots Shadow felt her systems start to freeze up with a snarl she landed grabbing shrapnel in her claws it was at this time that she became paralised; which for Shrapnel was probably a good thing or he'd be a pancake.

-------------------------

Sky was having his own amsument being the most manuverable in the air he dived under and over the jets blasting them every now and then. He was amused to see one of the jets crash into skywarp.

---------------

Shrapnel gave a sigh of relief, as the Dragon's grip on him faltered, then shen failed. Bombshell walked over to the stunned dragon. "Soon, you will be one of us, again." he grinned, and fired a cerebroshell into the femme's forehead. He cackled, and signaled DarkClaw. "The femme is ours..." 


	6. Chapter 6

The cerebroshell punctured Shadow's metal skull with enough pain to counteract the stun guns effect. With a loud roar Shadow reared, before sitting meekly on her haunches; she had never even heard of a cerebroshell let alone felt one. Now as her higher brain functions were disabled she found that she was trapped in her own body. Sitting down the dragon's optics gave a dull glow as all her attention became focused on the controller of the shell; Bombshell.

Darkclaw gave a triumphant shriek as he heard the news; "complete at last!!" Was his thought as he surveyed the meek dragoness.

Sky also gave a triumphant avian shriek as he did a victory roll. Windwhisper just didn't do anything as he grimaced behind his battlemask; he'd have a lot of work later. Beedrill buzzed happilly around the dragonesses head; stating their property.

Kickback was just glad it was all over. Well, for now anyhow. maybe the great screamer would carry on the attack now that the rangers had their 6th back? who knew, but he did suspect Bombshell intended a bit of foul play since he had a rather powerful transformer under his control (meaning he had Shadow, therefor had some say-so over Pathfinder's actions.)

Terra looked at Cap and facepalmed. She stood up, flapping her wings, and then shook her head. "Well...let's go." She said, flying into the air.

Alpha and Omega ran into the control room and tried to figure out what was going on. The twins looked at Cap and Terra.

It was about that time Megatron showed up on the battlefireld with reinforcements. Prime fired off a shot at him as he landed.

The silver Decepticon leader looked at the Insecticons and the stunned Shadow. "Rangers, Merge and attack!" he ordered.

Bombshell nodded to the dazed dragon. "Do it." he instructed.

Kickback gave Bombshell a prod. "what are you planning?" he asked the weevil, a hint of sly amusment in his tone.

Shadow gave an anguished roar and beat her wings lifting off the ground; she would comply. It was then that Saber and Windwhisper transformed folding up on themselves they became a pair of legs; next Beedrill transformed becoming the upper legs and combining the spark links initiating. Sky dove like an arrow and shifted becoming an arm. Next darkclaw twisted and shifted becoming the other arm their wings extra feathers split off and what was left folded into their forms; next Shadow herself screeching against that which she was powerless to resist; folded in on herself the extra feathers added on to her own wings making them larger as she attached to the rest of the group.

The geasult's optics glowed; he was whole! The young Pathfinder reveled in the life he once again had! Spreading his wings the geasult took to the skies his thundering voice spoke "I hear and I obey"

With that he pulled out his charged particle cannon and aimed it dead straight at the Ark and the Autobots within.

Shadow might not be able to control herself, but her emotions were still very much her own. It was this that caused Pathfinder to feel slight regret and what he felt he had to do.

Inside, Ratchet and Wheeljack worked quickly to get Bluestatic stable again, and then repair what damage had been done. It wasn't really as bad as it looked. some of his circuits had been fried, which had caused him to black out, and almost go into a system shutdown (basically, it was the equivalent of a concussion)

Outside, the Autobots scattered from the Ark's doorway for more secure cover. Jade and Powerglide swooped down, Gunlock and Beacon following to let of a row of shots and a few missiles at the giant.

The rest of the autbots kept firing too. Cap turned to Terra. "Stay here. Stay inside. I mean it." He ran for the door. He skidded to a halt seeing the business end of the giant Gestalt's blaster, and headed for the nearest rock. The autobots were throwing everything they had at Pathfinder, but none of it seemed to be working.

thinks he's doing something wrong then he wont do it unless he has a good reason to...btw a charged particle cannon to tf's is apparantly like having a hand held nuclear weapon to us so someone knock it out of his grasp when he uses it for the second time please))

Firing his gun Pathfinder was pushed back slightly in recoil the shots of the autobots were like annoying flies to him. Still he had to wait for it to recharge which was rather a pain. Putting it back for the moment he took out his sword and swatted at the airial pests before trying to decapitate those autobots that were dumb enough to get in his way. Feeling the internal 'ping' of his rifle reacharged he put his sword away and again pulled out his rifle this time he was aiming for the rocks above the defenders aiming to crush them with the debris that would be the result of his shot.

Kickback couldn't help but be startled. he'd never seen a gestalt quite like it, and what Pathfinder lacked in the physical strenght of the others, he made up for it in his smarts and skills.

Shrapnel just couldn't believe his optics. Heh Megsy the bucket head might just have bitten off more than he could chew, allowing Bomshell control over the dragon. Ah well, he wasn't to complain.

Skywarp and Thundercracker just did what they could to help Pathfinder fight off the airial threat even though they wouldn't admit it they were impressed with the geasults smarts...even though it wasn't as good as they were.

Megatron grinned and fired his armcannon at Prime. "You won't win this time, Prime!"

Optimus simply fired back at him.

The rest of the autobots kept firing. Jade commed Prowl, who commed everyone else.

"Concentrate your fire on the gestalt!" The fliers let off another barrage of missiles, which hit Pathfinder's arm. Cap transformed and fired his main cannon at the gestalt's legs.

Bombshell fired at random Autobots, then yelled "Destroy the Ark! fire at the Ark!" But the missiles had allready hit their mark...

Pathfinder staggered back and winced in pain as he droped his gun. He was also surprised that he was somehow compelled to obey the strange bug. "I'd like to see you try" he shot back at Bombshell.

Deep inside the part of his personality that was Shadow sniggered. Why? it didn't know, it just did. "Dam things are irritating" he muttered to himself before taking off completely from the ground. Drawing his sword, he activated Saber's cloaking device. Dissapearing from view only to reappear a moment later on top of the volcano that housed the ark. Just about ready to retrieve his gun and blast the irritating autobots away.

Kickback groaned "here we go again; looks like he's a bit rebellious, 'shell" he told his comrade as he also shot at random autobots.

About that time, Cable turned and shot Bombshell.

Meanwhile, in the repairbay, Ratchet glanced at Wheeljack as Bluestatic started to stir.

Bluestatic groaned, and his optics slowly came online "What??...happened?" he asked in the universal did you get the liscence plate of that truck that just hit me tone. Looking from Wheeljack to Ratchet; the engineer knew something was wrong.

Ratchet spoke first. "Saber snuck into the ark and shot you..." he glanced at Wheeljack, unsure how to explain what had happenned to Shadow. He looked back at Bluestatic.

"Something's happened... We're not sure what yet, but Shadow's rejoined the rangers, and they've merged. He had to push the young engineer back down as he struggled to get up. "There's nothing you can do to help, especially if you're still injured. Getting yourself killed isn't going to save your sister."

"She did WHAT??" Bluestatic yelled pure electricity started to crackle slightly along his body "No! she wouldn't; not willingly at least!" with an effort he managed to calm down as Ratchet pushed him back he lay there litterally shaking in pure fury.

"I don't know what they've done but I'm gonna kill them if they've hurt her" he muttered to himself his own golden optics blazing. It took a lot to get Bluestatic so riled up that he could barely control his electrical power but right now he didn't really care. The young bot was NOT in a good mood Saber had shot him; that in itself would cause Shadow to go over the top but re-join them...never! He knew deep in his spark that if there was one thing Shadow hated it was merging with them.

Bluestatic really wanted to hit something or preferably gain an outlet for all the excess electricity that was coursing through his frame. There wasn't anything he could do?? Yeah right Bluestatic knew his sister and he knew how to snap her out of it. More precisely he wanted to get out. Still he doubted he would be allowed instead he just lay there seething.

Ratchet paused again, then said "I have to go help out on the battlefield. Wheeljack, would you stay with him?" the lancia nodded, and Ratchet walked out.

---------------

"Oops, look like I missed one." Kickback thought as Bombshell went down. With an agrivated sigh he pulled his fellow insecticon out of the way and tried to make sure he was at least still in control of Shadow.  
Bombshell mumbled something incoherent and passed out.

When Bombshell passed out his control over the cerebro-shell faltered and so did Pathfinder. Shadow was trying to break free. The geasult looked around "someone better get the dragon back under control or I'm going to quite litterally split" he called out; not really bothered who heard him; right now all he wanted to stay in one piece.

Kickback groaned "Shrap he's out of it which means" he was cut off by Pathfinders own admission "what he said" he agreed.

Alpha and Omega looked around and then blinked. They opened their mouths, but shut it. "We've really gotta stop paying more attention t' wrestlin'..." Both muttered.

Terra landed next to Cap, her blaster still in her hand.  
Cap glanced at Terra. "I thought I told you to stay inside." He fired off another shot at the Decepticons.  
Terra smirked. "You did." She grunted, firing at the 'Cons. She let out a bat-like screech and then looked at Cap. "But I'm not so good at listening. Ask my bro"  
Cap rolled his optics, and shoved the bat to one side when a laserbolt whizzed by. He fired back at Dirge.  
Terra eeped and moved. She glared at Cap and then poked him before firing at the Decepticon.

Skywarp teleported in front of Gunlock, and fired off a row of shots, peppering his left wing. Smoke trailed after him as he spiraled dow. "I'm hit, I'm hit!" he radioed.

Beacon tried to fly a little hiigher, all the while mumbling "just don't look down... don't look down." Thundercracker hit him in the tailfins and the small plane did a head-over-afterburners spin.

"Yaaaaaugh!" He hit the ground so hard he bounced, and was knocked out for the count.

Meanwhile, Jade and Starscream chased each other across the skies...

---------------

Wheeljack looked at Ratchet as he left. He waited till the medbay doors had shut behind the CMO, then turned to static. "I know she didn't do it on purpose." he said, trying to calm the young engineer down.

Bluestatic practically hissed "I know she didn't do it because she wanted to; but how can you not do something on purpose!" He growled in irritation before a spark of inspiration struck him "Perhaps I can snap her out of it. Please Wheeljack I've gotta try!" he practically begged looking about as hopeful as he could.

---------------------

Pathfinder faltered, Shadow wasn't being co-operative as much as he did his own thing; he normally had to rely on his components leaving control to him and right now Shadow wasn't being the most helpful of people. The geasult was leaving himself open to attack and right now there wasn't much he could do about it. Fighting to regain herself Shadow stuggled violently inside Pathfinder's mind. The other Rangers were almost begging her to stop though they tried to restrain her, it was very difficult.

----------------

Wheeljack glanced at the closed med-bay doors. "Ratchet would be 'Really' mad at me for this, but..." he helped Static off the recharge berth. "I'm going with you,.to make sure yer okay. Your siter'd tear me to bits if she found out I let you put yourself in danger on her behalf." Wheeljack helped Bluestatic off the repair berth, and through the door to Ratchet's office, towards the Ark's side exit.

Bluestatic actually grinned "Thanks Wheeljack" he told the older engineer as he helped him off the berth "hehe she might; though I highly doubt it" he tried to reasure Wheeljack as they headed for the exit; he would get Shadow back; the rangers could got to the pit for all he cared; all he wanted was his sister back.

Wheeljack went through his workshop, and edged around the side of the mountain. He heard Pathfinder, and looked up. "Looks like she's trying to get free, at least." he told static.

-------------------

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ark, a certain pair of twins were having their own set of problems...

Alpha and Omega glanced at the stunticons and gulped. "OH dear." They muttered, but pulled the energy from their sparks into their hands and fired them at the mechs like a machine gun.  
Motormaster pounded forward, intent on pounding them both into scrap metal, and Wyldrider went down first. Then Breakdown. Dead end didn't even try to dodge. A bolt hit him in the leg, and he fired back at the two.

The twins seperated and continued to fire at the group. They looked at each other.

"Ni'ja!" Both called.

A huge sword landed in their hands and they ran at the group.

The stunticons kept firing at them. Prowl and Bluestreak somehow managed to get up onto the Ark's boosters, and started sniping at the Decepticons from up there. The Aerialbots came out to help fight off the seekers, and Blitzwing. Cap saw Ty and Driveby head over to a nearby rock and the stunticons on the other side beyond them. He fired at them, hitting one of them, he wasn't sure which one he'd hit.

The twins slashed at Motormaster and jumped over a shot. They yelped as a shot hit their sword, making it fly out of their hands and disappear.

Terra hissed and fired at the mechs. She twitched her ears and a loud screech hit them. She mentally disabled her ears and continued to fire. Only smart 'Cons knew her weakness. And she knew the Stunticons weren't the smart ones.

Bluestatic smirked "thats my sis" he muttered; though now he was out here he didn't quite know how he was going to help his sister. That was until Pathfinder's optics landed on him.

Looking the gestalt in the optic he called out gently to it "Sis I know you...you wouldn't do this because you wanted to; I'm fine see I'm here, come back; please".

With this Shadow's struggles increased untill it reached the point where Pathfinder could no longer hold himself together.

With a cry he split apart into his components.

Shadow, managing to direct herself, fell to the ground at her brother's feet mentally exhausted...and with a nagging headache.

Bluestatic managed to kneel down and support his sister all the while glaring at the rest of the rangers who had, by now, regained their sense of self and were intending to finish off the job that Saber had started.

--------------------------------------

((Note: Pathfinders bio explains why he is essentially a self thinking unit http://pics. 


	7. Chapter 7

Bluestatic glared...no he didn't just glare; he literally glared daggers at them. Holding Shadow protectively Bluestatic was prepared to go all out against them; that is, unless something else caugh their attention.

The rangers were furious. They had been united for a few glorious moments then this pathetic excuse for an autobot had to take her away again. They were not going to just kill him; no. The rangers intended to have a much sweeter revenge.

Kickback just gave shrapnel a look saying 'do you really want to stay?' Before shooting at the autobots again.

The Stunticons did as Megatron commanded, and since they had been fighting Alpha and Omega, made it a point to try to step on them. About that time, though, the Aerialbots showed up.

"Come on guys, let's show 'em what we can do!" Silverbolt called. The group merged to become Superion, and the two gestalts started fighting.

The twins yelped and tried to dodge. They winced and helped Superion fire at the mech.  
Shrapnel fired at Bluestreak, hitting the rock he was behind. He fired back.

Wheeljack didn't waste any time useing something that he'd been working on...albeit with a little help from Bluestatic he shot the rangers forcing them into their bestial alt-modes.

That done Bluestatic frees one hand and channel's his static electricty through to the rangers causing a lot of rather shocking damage. Kind of like Shrapnels attack, but with a different poliarity.

Superion didn't waste any time with his attack on Menasaur. He fired his gun at him as soon as the gestalt was distracted by the twins, who replied with a punch to the head, and knocked Superion off his feet, hitting the Ark's boosters with his head. He fired again, hitting Menasaur in the chest. Megatron knew they were loosing. He really hated to call for a retreat when he was this close to being victorious!

"Decepticons!..."

he growled under his breath.

"Retreat."

The twins high fived each other and smiled.

Terra sighed and landed. "Well, that was fun..."

Alpha looked at the mechs. "C'mon. We'd bettah start the repairs." She stated to the older medic as she followed Ratchet inside. She sighed and glanced at her brother, who went to watch wrestling.

The rangers snarled as the were forcibly transformed and then shocked. Sky flew for the open sky as fast as he could followed by darkclaw and beedrill. Saber and windwhisper ran yelping from the extensive damage the blue bot had given them.

Bluestatic turned to wheeljack "thanks" he spoke grinning all the while holding his unconsious sister. "I guess we better get her back...wait what's this" Bluestatic had noticed the entry point of the cerbro-shell now he was up close; curious he pointed it out to wheeljack.

"Let me see that..." wheeljack bent down and pulled out a pair of tweezers. Once he'd gotten the shell out, he turned it this way and that, looking at it. "Uh-huh, exactly what I thought. This is one of Bombshell's cerebro-shells." he looked up as Prime and Prowl walked up. "it's one of Bombshell's cerebro-shells, Prime." he stated, holding the tiny square up where the Autobot leader could see it.

"Are you sure?" Prime answered.

Wheeljack nodded. "Positive."

And Ratchet walked up, and saw Static, and started complaining. "I thought I told you to stay in the repairbay! Primus-damnit, why don't you listen to me! you were allready damaged, you could have gotten more damaged..." he trailed off, adding a few colorfull explicatives that even made Prime want to blush under his faceplate. Prowl gave him a couple glances.

"...And you!!!" Ratchet pointed at Wheeljack, and let him have it, too.

After a few nminutes Prime held up his hand. "All right, Ratchet, let's get Bluestatic and Shadow to the repairbay."

the CMO grumbled a bit more as a couple autobots helped the pair inside. And shot a glance at Wheeljack. "And you should have known better." he snarked, glaring daggers.

"...sorry. I just thought..." That just produced another tirade.

Jade landed behind them and shook her head. The rest of the autobots made sure the last of the Decepticons were out of sight before holstiering their weapons, and Superion seperated into his components.

"Ow... I've got a huge headache." Slingshot complained. "It's no wonder." Skydive replied. "Menasaur made Superion hit his head on the Ark's booster... ow." he held a hand to his head, also.

Bluestatic optics brightened "So it wasn't her fault?" he asked tentatively as he was helped up. He turned to look at Ratchet and at least had the grace to look apologetic. "Though I do have one hell of a headache" he muttered to himself.

It was then that Shadow's optics fluttered open and with a groan she commented "Heh, you have a headache try having 5 people yelling at you and getting shot in the head with some kind of bizzare device...now I have one hell of a headache" she muttered her voice sounding weak even to her Shadow looked over to Prime "sorry about all that; heh guess I kinda lost it."

Shadow felt quite ashamed of her actions and at least felt the need to apologise properly. Otherwise the dragon didn't even bother to move then again she wasn't even sure she could.

Prime nodded. Let's just worried about getting you repaired, for now."

Wheeljack helped the femme inside, the rest of the Autobots heading back into the Ark talking amongst themselves.

Shadow gave a small nod absolutely exhausted she didn't complain allowing Wheeljack to guide her where he wanted. Bluestatic following behind with Ratchet and Alpha. Shadow wanted to apologise to 'Static most of all he'd been the one whom she had hurt the most and right now she knew that it was likely she'd be isolated again and probably he would too by association.

They got to he repairbay to find a few mechs who had been injured in the battle, gunlock and beacon being two of them. Cable was sitting on the floor next to them, and looked up. He waved. Hi shadow, didjya have fun?" he gave her an affable grin.

The dragon just groaned "heck no having your body controlled is never very fun it also leaves you with a headache thats worse with a hangover" she told him sounding for once sociable as wheeljack helped her onto the repair berth since she could hardly stand.

Bluestatic ambled in after her and took a space on the floor near her so he could keep his optics on her at all times. This time he was being protective.

Ironhide and Cliffjumper ambled in. "No-good two-bit dragon..." the minispy glared at her. "Lay off her, Cliffjumper. It wasn't her fault." Ironhide replied.

"Yeah? and how do you know that? For all we know she could have purposely gone back to being a Decepticon." the red car stated, a few "Yeahs." and sounds of agreement sounded. "Lay off it jumper, you know you're the first to jump on anyone you think isn't worthy." Jade grouched from where she was sitting. One wing had been ripped up a little bit, and she was trying not to lean against the wall the wrong way and make it hurt more.

Shadow closed her optics then half sat up "don't bother, Cliffjumper; I can't expect someone quite like you to understand half of what I just went through" Shadow's tone was as cold as her gaze and as unwavering

"As for going back...not even if you offered to give me my home back would I return to them". Shadow did give an apologetic look towards Jade "sorry about that" she spoke quietly "I assure you I had no intention of doing anything to harm you". With that Shadow lay back down lest she incur the wrath of Ratchet.

Bluestatic however wasn't as lenient "How dare you!" he hissed "she didn't do it on perpose Wheeljack even verified it; it was Bombshells cerebro-shells or whatever there called no one had even told us about them. How can you expect us to be able to fight against something we know nothing of!" Bluestatic had kept his voice as calm as he could but in his anger his static electricity began to build again causing small sparks to flare along his plating. It was at that moment Bluestatic decided he didn't like Cliffjumper at all.

Jade nodded, then gave cliffjumper a look. "It's okay. and don't mind the red mini-me over there. He's allways like that.

"Yeah, well at least I know what loyalty means!" Cliffjumper shot back.

Shadow just grinned a bit "don't worry too much, I got it pretty much all the time on the outpost...though Static doesn't like it" she cast a glance to her brother who snorted even more electicty glanced along his form. "yes I can see that" she snarked back to Cliffjumper.

Bluestatic just sat there, his expression very dark.

Cliffjumper huffed. "Yeah, wll you sure don't act like you know what it means. You sure liked helping out your old buddies, didn't you?"

"Cliffjumper, knock it off." Ratchet warned.

"What, I'm not doing anything. Just stating the obvious, that's all." the minispy said with mock sincerity.

Cable glanced at one party then the other like it was a game of verbal ping pong.

"Yaknow, for being such a mini spy you sure have a big mouth." he commented.

A chorus of "oooooh"'s sounded from the surrounding mechs.

Cable grinned. He was only a head and shoulders taller than Cliffjumper to begin with, and knew it.

"Knock it off. both of you." Ratchet warned again.

"Or what, you'll kick the traitors out of the repairbay?"

Beacon jumped up. "We have never done anything to deserve being called that."

Cliffjumper shrugged. "Uh huh. and I know a blue lotus elise sportcar that thinks otherwise."

Jade jumped up and yelled "Leave him out of this!!"

"Or what!?" Cliffjumper yelled back. "You'll..."

"SHUT UP!" Ratchet yelled.

He gave Jade a glare, and Cliffjujmper a matching one. "I can't work with all of you yelling at each other. Now either SHUT UP or GET OUT!" he leveled the groups with an angry stare.

Jade slowly sat down. Cliffjumper just looked smug. 


	8. Chapter 8

Cliffjumper huffed. "Yeah, wll you sure don't act like you know what it means. You sure liked helping out your old buddies, didn't you"  
"Cliffjumper, knock it off." Ratchet warned.

"What, I'm not doing anything. Just stating the obvious, thast's all." the minispy said with mock sincerity.

Cable glanced at one party then the other like it was a game of verbal ping pong. "Yaknow, for being such a mini spy you sure have a big mouth." he commented.

A chorus of "oooooh"'s sounded from the surrounding mechs.

Cable grinned. He was only a head and shoulders taller than Cliffjumper to begin with, and knew it.

"Knock it off. both of you." Ratchet warned again.

"Or what, you'll kick the traitors out of the repairbay?"

Beacon jumped up. "We have never done anything to deserve being called that."

Cliffjumper shrugged. "Uh huh. and I know a blue lotus elise sportcar that thinks otherwise.

Jade jumped up and yelled "Leave him out of this!!"

"Or what!?" Cliffjumper yelled back. "You'll..."

"SHUT UP!" Ratchet yelled.

He gave Jade a glare, and Cliffjujmper a matching one. "I can't work with all of you yelling at each other. Now either SHUT UP or GET OUT!" He leveled the groups with an angry stare.

Jade slowly sat down. Cliffjumper just looked smug.

Alpha wacked Cliffjumper. "Don't start things you aren't willing finish. Now either get out of the med bay and continue your stupid argument somewhere else or shut up"  
Omega whistled.  
Alpha shot him a glare and continued to repair her friends.

Shadow didn't even bother replying to half of it she simply muttered "no you don't understand" before saying a little louder "yes you seem to like doing that even though I hardly hear you stating the obvious about your self" and with that she very wisely shut up. Sending a thankful look to Cable she lay back down allowing Ratchet to repair her.

That was until Cliffjumper threatened Jade..or at least it seemed like it to her she hadn't much of an idea who he was talking about but she did let out a dragonic hiss. If she weren't as damaged or as tired as she was it would have been very likely that she would have toasted the minibot then and there. As Shadow still had reminants of programing that caused her to be much more violent than most autobots and a lot more deadly. It was again one of the reasons she usually distanced herself and learnt how to take people insulting her. However if they said one wrong word about her brother or one of the few people she either respected or had formed a friendship with...then all hell would be let lose.

-----------------

Bluestatic thought enough was enough he might not be able to help with repairs because of his head injury but that didn't mean he couldn't shut the annoying bot up. Channelling a little of his excess energy through the floor he gave Cliffjumper a little electric shock. Not enough to hurt but enough to shut him up...or cause him to jump either could be good; one slightly more amusing than the other though.

"and just what's that supposed to mean?" the red minibot glared back. About that time, Bluestatic's shock reached him, making Cliffjumper jump and yelp.

"What the heck was that!" he snarled, jumping up again. Hound grabbed him by the shoulder and started to pull him back down, but he shook him off.

"You think you're such and upstanding Autobot don't you! You're just as much of a traitor as she is!" he snarled.

"What part of shut up do you not understand?" Ratchet actually paused long enough to turn and give the minibot a glare.

He reluctantly sat back down, mumbling. "This isn't over. Far from it... traitor." he folded his arms and looked crossly at the dragoness across from him.

Alpha growled loudly and threw her wrench at Cliffjumper's head. She narrowed her optics. "None of them are traitors. Now. Shut the up before I give you something to complain about." She threatened, playing with her hammer. The femme went back to repairing.

Omega snorted. He shook his head and muttered something like "don't get on her bad side"

Bluestatic just looked at Cliffjumper "why's that; because I'm willing to stand up for my sister? I hardly think that makes me a traitor" The engineer put his head back against the table shutting off his optics for a bit. "As for what it was a meer reversed polarity that i used to save generally everyone's hide. If they got my sister back then you would have one more geasult to worry about. And believe me Pathfinder isn't like most others. Besides Shadow hates it." At ratchet's asking to Shut up Bluestatic quieted down. The minibot had best not push his luck with them or Bluestatic would not be able to hold Shadow back.  
------------------------

Shadow's tail flicked. "I mean that it usually those who jump at an opportunity to discriminate that have something that they wish to hide" she muttered before giving a wry smirk when Cliffjumper yelped oh she was well aware of what her brother had done though she wouldn't admit to knowing of it. Though when he insulted her brother Shadow did actually growl in warning. If she wasn't being repaired right now she would have grabed Cliffjumper by the throat and held him against the wall until he apologised but right now she couldn't do it. So instead she returned Cliffjumper's look but hers was of a chilling coldness that could probably unneve many people.

When Alpha threw her wrench a cold smirk of satisfaction briefly moved across her features so fast that it was doubtful it ever occured. Faced with old threats Shadow's mind moved back into the steadfast coldness and detachability in which she found was often safest to reside in. Her mental walls up Shadow was practically unreachable by anyone but her brother. No emotion settled on her features and this was almost more unneving than the cold look given to cliffjumper. Right now the damage had been done and Shadow was residing where she knew she could best protect her brother.

Ratchet finished his repairs and motioned for Cliffjumper. He decided to fix the little red hellion, just so he could get him out of the repairbay faster, and prevent any further arguments. Cable glanced over at him and whispered something to Beacn next to him.

Shadow slowly got off the repair berth and helped her brother stand up she then moved over to the nearest unoccupied wall making no sound either in her movements or in speaking. Shadow was (for now) as cold as ice.

Bluestatic was grateful to Shadow for helping him though when she closed up like this it did scare him a little. He decided to say nothing about it though he meerly gave his own cold glare whenever anyone gave his sister an angry look. Something that looked out of place on his normally cheerful face.

Cable glanced over. "See ya later, alligator." he called cheerfully. Beacon shook his head. "Where in the world do you get these sayings?" he asked. The car just shrugged. "television"  
Jade rolled her optics, then said to Shadow "It's human saying." she sighed. Clkiffjumper mumbled something, then jumped as the CMO purposely hit a sensitive wire.

"OW! watch what you're doing!"

"Oh, sorry." Ratchet replied with mock sincerity.

Shadow was still cold she just looked over at Cable and gave a small nod. Otherwise she didn't do very much apart from when Jade mentioned that it was a human saying then all she said was a simple emotionless "I see" curling her wing about her brother she gently steered him out of the medbay. After all Ratchet had told them that they needed rest.

Bluestatic gave a small grin to Cable before he was steered gently out of the medbay one of his sisters wings curled protectively around him.

Alpha finished with the ones she was supossed to fix and then put her stuff away. She took her wrench from Cliffjumper's head, snorted at him, and then put her tools back into sub space.

Jade plodded over to where Alpha was waiting to get her wing fixed the stupid thing hurt like heck, even though there wasn't that much damage. But a seeker's wings were imbedded with airflow sensors, which made it hurt like the pit everytime one one her wings got damaged. Alpha looked at Jade. "Whoops. Forgot boutcha again." She sweatdropped, getting her tools back out. She sat Jade down, gave her something to numb the pain and then started to work.

Walking along the hallway Shadow and Bluestatic returned to their quarters though they didn't share they were next door and they both knew each others codes so if anything did happen the siblings were well prepared to defend each other.

--------------

Megatron stalked into the Nemesis. He was furious! they had been SO close! not to mention Saber had absolutely, positively failed on her part of the mission, which was why the autobot Bluestatic had single-handedly defeated their plan!!! he growled under his breath and looked over at his troups.

Saber's tail quivered she knew her team-mates dissaproval of her but she was sure she'd hit the one hit one kill spot; perhaps she had not quite calculated her position as well as she had originally thought.

Kickback just looked bored failure was something the insecticons were used to so it didn't bother him too much. However he was still curious about how the younger autobot had managed to talk to the geasult without getting squashed.

Shrapnel on the other hand was not a happy bug; not only had they lost a powerful tool but one of his group had been damaged and that if that wasn't irritating enough now he had to sit here and listen to megsy ramble. Oh joy.

Megatron glared. "I want to know what happened!" he demanded angrily, looking at the Insecticons and the Rangers.

The rangers flinched the Kickback and shrapnel just sat there. Before Shrapnel spoke up.

"It seems that after Bombshell was hit the control weakened enough for pathfinder to become easy prey, prey" he paused for a second "it seems next that the autobot engineer called out to his sister enabling her to escape; escape" this time he glanced at the rangers "while they were going to attack the other engineer wheeljack sent them into their animal alt-modes with some kind of contraption; contraption" he paused again having gotten kickback to ask about Shrapnel had been able to piece together what happened albeit he was curious about the young engineer and how he had managed to use Static electicity to attack them. Resuming Shrapnel said:

"It seems next the younger engineer used an attack very simmilar to my control of lightning to send the rangers packing". "Perhaps both siblings could be an asset." he thought to himself.

Megatron growled. "There is no excuse for your failure. I will expect you to be more affective in your attack next time." he glared at saber. Without their sixth, they were not a gestalt. and useless Decepticons were not of any value to Megatron to keep around. He wondered if he should have even let them come to Earth. "Soundwave." megatron called, and walked out to plan his next attack, the casette player following.

Saber flinched visibly while Darkclaw and Sky both gave her a sideways glance and moved oh so slightly closer. They knew without Shadow they weren't anything but how to go about getting the dragon back...now that was something they had no clue about; pehaps they should leave the planning to Megatron and Soundwave it might work out better that way.

--------------

Meanwhile, on Earth, Jade and the rest had finished being repaired, and headed off to get some relaxation in before their next duty shift.

Hoist and Grapple finished welding another peice of metal into place at the rec. room door. "I'm telling you, she's a danger to have around!" Grapple protested.

"Nah. Not any more than Sunstreaker." Hoist replied with a more humored tone. Said mech looked up from his table. "Don't think I didn't hear that." he called.

Jade walked up, eyed the door, "tsk tsk"ed, and passed the two on into the rec room to watch tv.

Megatron finalized his plans with soundwave, and made sure the Constructicons were fully recharged and ready to go. If his plan worked. he'd be rid of several pains in the daiodes, and have Shadow back. He reminded himself to have her memory banks wiped as soon as they reached the Nemesis. But that was later, after everything else was taken care of.  
"I'm telling you it won't work!" Starscream's rasping screech was starting to get on his nerves. He didn't feel like arguing with the arrogant seeker again today. But starscream followed him as he walked, voicing his dire predictions the entire way down the hall.

"Have you forgotten what happened last time we tried to recapture that dragon-bot! I nearly got my wings ripped off!!" Starscream's voice rose a little. Megatron stopped and turned around so abruptly, Starscream nearly ran into him. "And I'll rip your wings off if you don't SHUT UP!" Megatron growled, then turned and stalked down the hall, leaving Starscream standing in the middle of the corridor to ponder whether his threat carried any weight or not.

He mumbled. "I'm telling you it won't work." and walked the other direction. 


End file.
